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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
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TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Introduction,  xi 

CHAPTER  I. 

Youth,  1 

CHAPTER  H. 

Stages  of  Conversion,  15 

CHAPTER  III. 

h     ;hurch  about  1209,   28 

]  CHAPTER  IV. 

GGLES  AND  TRIUMPHS,  53 

CHAPTER  V. 

t  Year  op  Apostolate,     ,      .      .      .      .      .  ,71 
CHAPTER  VI. 

Francis  and  Innocent  III.,  ,88 

I 

CHAPTER  VII. 

/o-Torto,  103 


Viii  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

?AGE 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

PORTIUNCULA,  120 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Santa  Clara,  .147 

CHAPTER  X. 

First  Attempts  to  reach  the  Infidels,      .      .      .      .  1G8 
CHAPTER  XL 

The  Inner  Man  and  Wonder-working,       .      .      .  .183 
CHAPTER  XII. 

The  Chapter-General  of  1217,      .      .      .      .      .      .  198 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
St.  Dominic  and  St.  Francis,  

CHAPTER  XIV. 

The  Crisis  of  the  Order,   S&y 

CHAPTER  XV. 

The  Rule  of  1221,    .........  252 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

The  Brothers  Minor  and  Learning,   271 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
The  Stigmata,   287 


TABLE  OF  CONTEXTS  ix 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
The  Canticle  of  the  Sun,  .297 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

The  Last  Yeab,  308 

CHAPTER  XX. 

Francis's  Will  and  Death,  383 

Critical  Study  of  the  Sources,  847 

APPENDIX. 

Critical  Study  of  the  Stigmata  and  of  the  Indulgence 

of  August  2,  433 

1^ 


INTRODUCTION 

In  the  renascence  of  history  which  is  in  a  manner  the 
characteristic  of  our  time,  the  Middle  Ages  have  been 
the  object  of  peculiar  fondness  with  both  criticism  and 
erudition.  We  rummage  all  the  dark  corners  of  the 
libraries,  we  bring  old  parchments  to  light,  and  in  the 
zeal  and  ardor  we  put  into  our  search  there  is  an  inde- 
finable touch  of  piety. 

These  efforts  to  make  the  past  live  again  reveal  not 
merely  our  curiosity,  or  the  lack  of  power  to  grapple  with 
great  philosophic  problems,  they  are  a  token  of  wisdom 
and  modesty  ;  we  are  beginning  to  feel  that  the  present 
has  its  roots  in  the  past,  and  that  in  the  fields  of  politics 
and  religion,  as  in  others,  slow,  modest,  persevering  toil 
is  that  which  has  the  best  results. 

There  is  also  a  token  of  love  in  this.  We  love  our 
ancestors  of  five  or  six  centuries  ago,  and  we  mingle  not 
a  little  emotion  and  gratitude  with  this  love.  So,  if  one 
may  hope  everything  of  a  son  who  loves  his  parents, 
we  must  not  despair  of  an  age  that  loves  history. 

The  Middle  Ages  form  an  organic  period  in  the  life  of 
humanity.  Like  all  powerful  organisms  the  period  began 
with  a  long  and  mysterious  gestation  ;  it  had  its  youth, 
its  manhood,  its  decrepitude.  The  end  of  the  twelfth 
century  and  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  mark  its  full 
expansion  ;  it  is  the  twentieth  year  of  life,  with  its 
poetry,  its  dreams,  its  enthusiasm,  its  generosity,  its  dar- 
ing.   Love  overflowed  with  vigor  ;  men  everywhere  had 


xii 


INTRODUCTION 


but  one  desire — to  devote  themselves  to  some  great  and 
holy  cause. 

Curiously  enough,  though  Europe  was  more  parcelled 
out  than  ever,  it  felt  a  new  thrill  run  through  its  entire 
extent.  There  was  what  Ave  might  call  a  state  of  Eu- 
ropean consciousness. 

In  ordinary  periods  each  people  has  its  own  interests, 
its  tendencies,  its  tears,  and  its  joys  ;  but  let  a  time  of 
crisis  come,  and  the  true  unity  of  the  human  family 
will  suddenly  make  itself  felt  with  a  strength  never  be- 
fore suspected.  Each  body  of  water  has  its  own  cur- 
rents, but  when  the  hurricane  is  abroad  they  mysteriously 
intermingle,  and  from  the  ocean  to  the  remotest  mountain 
lake  the  same  tremor  will  upheave  them  all. 

It  was  thus  in  '89,  it  was  thus  also  in  the  thirteenth 
century. 

Never  was  there  less  of  frontier,  never,  either  before  or 
since,  such  a  mingling  of  nationalities  ;  and  at  the  present 
day,  with  all  our  highways  and  railroads,  the  people  live 
more  apart.1 

The  great  movement  of  thought  of  the  thirteenth 
century  is  above  all  a  religious  movement,  presenting  a 
double  character — it  is  popular  and  it  is  laic.  It  comes 
out  from  the  heart  of  the  people,  and  it  looks  athwart 
many  uncertainties  at  nothing  less  than  wresting  the 
sacred  things  from  the  hands  of  the  clergy. 

The  conservatives  of  our  time  who  turn  to  the  thir- 

1  The  mendicant  orders  were  in  their  origin  a  true  International. 
When  in  the  spring  of  1216  St.  Dominic  assembled  his  friars  at  Notre 
Dame  de  la  Prouille,  they  were  found  to  be  sixteen  in  number,  and 
among  them  Castilians,  Navarese,  Normans,  French,  Languedocians, 
and  even  English  and  Germans. 

Heretics  travelled  all  over  Europe,  and  nowhere  do  we  find  them 
checked  by  the  diversity  of  languages.  Arnold  of  Brescia,  for  example, 
the  famous  Tribune  of  Rome,  appeared  in  France  and  Switzerland  and 
in  the  heart  of  Germany. 


INTRODUCTION 


xiii 


teenth  century  as  to  the  golden  age  of  authoritative 
faith  make  a  strange  mistake.  If  it  is  especially  the 
century  of  saints,  it  is  also  that  of  heretics.  We  shall 
soon  see  that  the  two  words  are  not  so  contradictory  as 
might  appear  ;  it  is  enough  for  the  moment  to  point 
out  that  the  Church,  had  never  been  more  powerful  nor 
more  threatened. 

There  was  a  genuine  attempt  at  a  religious  revolution, 
which,  if  it  had  succeeded,  would  have  ended  in  a 
universal  priesthood,  in  the  proclamation  of  the  rights  of 
the  individual  conscience. 

The  effort  failed,  and  though  later  on  the  Revolution 
made  us  all  kings,  neither  the  thirteenth  century  nor  the 
Reformation  was  able  to  make  us  all  priests.  Herein,  no 
doubt,  lies  the  essential  contradiction  of  our  lives  and 
that  which  periodically  puts  our  national  institutions  in 
peril.  Politically  emancipated,  we  are  not  morally  or  re- 
ligiously free.1 

The  thirteenth  century  with  juvenile  ardor  undertook 
this  revolution,  which  has  not  yet  reached  its  end.  In 
the  north  of  Europe  it  became  incarnate  in  cathedrals,  in 
the  south,  in  saints. 

The  cathedrals  were  the  lay  churches  of  the  thirteenth 
century.  Built  by  the  people  for  the  people,  they  were 
originally  the  true  common  house  of  our  old  cities.  Mu- 

1  The  Reformation  only  substituted  the  authority  of  the  book  for  that 
of  the  priest  ;  it  is  a  change  of  dynasty  and  nothing  more.  As  to  the 
majority  of  those  who  to-day  call  themselves  free-thinkers,  they  confuse 
religious  freedom  with  irreligion  ;  they  choose  not  to  see  that  in  religion 
as  in  politics,  between  a  royalty  based  on  divine  right  and  anarchy 
there  is  room  for  a  government  which  may  be  as  strong  as  the  first  and 
a  better  guarantee  of  freedom  than  the  second.  The  spirit  of  the  older 
time  put  God  outside  of  the  world  ;  the  sovereignty  outside  of  the 
people  ;  authority  outside  of  the  conscience.  The  spirit  of  the  new  times 
has  the  contrary  tendency  :  it  denies  neither  God  nor  sovereignty  nor 
authority,  but  it  sees  them  where  they  really  are. 


xiv 


INTRODUCTION 


seuins,  granaries,  chambers  of  commerce,  halls  of  justice, 
depositories  of  archives,  and  even  labor  exchanges,  they 
were  all  these  at  once. 

That  art  of  the  Middle  Ages  which  Yictor  Hugo  and 
Viollet-le-Duc  have  taught  us  to  understand  and  love 
was  the  visible  expression  of  the  enthusiasm  of  a  people 
who  were  achieving  communal  liberty.  Very  far  from 
being  the  gift  of  the  Church,  it  was  in  its  beginning  an 
unconscious  protest  against  the  hieratic,  impassive,  esote- 
ric art  of  the  religious  orders.  We  find  only  laymen  in 
the  long  list  of  master-workmen  and  painters  who  have 
left  us  the  innumerable  Gothic  monuments  which  stud  the 
soil  of  Europe.  Those  artists  of  genius  who,  like  those 
of  Greece,  knew  how  to  speak  to  the  populace  without  be- 
ing common,  were  for  the  most  part  humble  workmen  ; 
they  found  their  inspiration  not  in  the  formulas  of  the 
masters  of  monastic  art,  but  in  constant  communion  with 
the  very  soul  of  the  nation.  Therefore  this  renascence, 
in  its  most  profound  features,  concerns  less  the  archae- 
ology or  the  architecture  than  the  history  of  a  country. 

While  in  the  northern  countries  the  people  were  build- 
ing their  own  churches,  and  finding  in  their  enthusiasm 
an  art  which  was  new,  original,  complete,  in  the  south, 
above  the  official,  clerical  priesthood  of  divine  right  they 
were  greeting  and  consecrating  a  new  priesthood,  that  of 
the  saints. 

The  priest  of  the  thirteenth  century  is  the  antithesis  of 
the  saint,  he  is  almost  always  his  enemy.  Separated  by 
the  holy  unction  from  the  rest  of  mankind,  inspiring  awe 
as  the  representative  of  an  all-powerful  God,  able  by  a 
few  signs  to  perform  unheard-of  mysteries,  with  a  word 
to  change  bread  into  flesh  and  wine  into  blood,  he  ap- 
peared as  a  sort  of  idol  which  can  do  all  things  for  or 
against  you  and  before  which  you  have  only  to  adore 
and  tremble. 


INTRODUCTION 


The  saint,  on  the  contrary,  was  one  whose  mission  was 
proclaimed  by  nothing  in  his  apparel,  but  whose  life  and 
words  made  themselves  felt  in  all  hearts  and  consciences  ; 
he  was  one  who,  with  no  cure  of  souls  in  the  Church,  felt 
himself  suddenly  impelled  to  lift  up  his  voice.  The 
child  of  the  people,  he  knew  all  their  material  and  moral 
woes,  and  their  mysterious  echo  sounded  in  his  own 
heart.  /  Like  the  ancient  prophet  of  Israel,  he  heard  an 
imperious  voice  saying  to  him  :  "  Go  and  speak  to  the 
children  of  my  people."  "Ah,  Lord  God,  I  am  but  a 
child,  I  know  not  how  to  speak."  "  Say  not,  I  am  but  a 
child,  for  thou  shalt  go  to  all  those  to  whom  I  shall  send 
thee.  Behold  I  have  set  thee  to-day  as  a  strong  city,  a 
pillar  of  iron  and  a  wall  of  brass  against  the  kings  of 
Judah,  against  its  princes  and  against  its  priests." 

These  thirteenth  -  century  saints  were  in  fact  true 
prophets.  Apostles  like  St.  Paul,  not  as  the  result  of  a 
canonical  consecration,  but  by  the  interior  order  of  the 
Spirit,  they  were  the  witnesses  of  liberty  against  au- 
thority. 

The  Calabrian  seer,  Gioacchino  di  Fiore,  hailed  the 
new-born  revolution  ;  he  believed  in  its  success  and  pro- 
claimed to  the  wondering  world  the  advent  of  a  new  min- 
istry.   He  was  mistaken. 

When  the  priest  sees  himself  vanquished  by  the 
prophet  he  suddenly  changes  his  method.  He  takes  him 
under  his  protection,  he  introduces  his  harangues  into 
the  sacred  canon,  he  throws  over  his  shoulders  the 
priestly  chasuble.  The  days  pass  on,  the  years  roll  by, 
and  the  moment  comes  when  the  heedless  crowd  no 
longer  distinguishes  between  them,  and  it  ends  by  believ- 
ing the  prophet  to  be  an  emanation  of  the  clergy. 

This  is  one  of  the  bitterest  ironies  of  history. 

Francis  of  Assisi  is  pre-eminently  the  saint  of  the  Mid- 
dle Ages.    Owing  nothing  to  church  or  school  he  was 


xvi 


INTRODUCTION 


truly  Iheodidacty*  and  if  he  perhaps  did  not  perceive  the 
revolutionary  bearing  of  his  preaching,  he  at  least  always 
refused  to  be  ordained  priest.  He  divined  the  superi- 
ority of  the  spiritual  priesthood. 

The  charm  of  his  life  is  that,  thanks  to  reliable  docu- 
ments, Ave  find  the  man  behind  the  wonder  worker.  We 
find  in  him  not  merely  noble  actions,  we  find  in  him  a 
life  in  the  true  meaning  of  the  word  ;  I  mean,  we  feel  in 
him  both  development  and  struggle. 

How  mistaken  are  the  annals  of  the  Saints  in  repre- 
senting him  as  from  the  very  cradle  surrounded  with 
aureole  and  nimbus  !  As  if  the  finest  and  most  manly  of 
spectacles  were  not  that  of  the  man  who  conquers  his 
soul  hour  after  hour,  fighting  first  against  himself,  against 
the  suggestions  of  egoism,  idleness,  discouragement,  then 
at  the  moment  when  he  might  believe  himself  victorious, 
finding  in  the  champions  attracted  by  his  ideal  those  who 
are  destined  if  not  to  bring  about  its  complete  ruin,  at 
least  to  give  it  its  most  terrible  blows.  Poor  Francis! 
The  last  years  of  his  life  were  indeed  a  via  dolorosa  as 
painful  as  that  where  his  master  sank  down  under  the 
weight  of  the  cross  ;  for  it  is  still  a  joy  to  die  for  one's 
ideal,  but  what  bitter  pain  to  look  on  in  advance  at  the 
apotheosis  of  one's  body,  while  seeing  one's  soul — I 
would  say  his  thought — misunderstood  and  frustrated. 

If  we  ask  for  the  origins  of  his  idea  we  find  them  ex- 
clusively among  the  common  people  of  his  time  ;  he  is  the 
incarnation  of  the  Italian  soul  at  the  beginning  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  as  Dante  was  to  be  its  incarnation  a 
hundred  years  later. 

He  was  of  the  people  and  the  people  recognized  them- 
selves in  him.  He  had  their  poetry  and  their  aspirations, 

1  Nemo  ostendebat  mihi  quod  dcberem  facere,  sed  ipse  Altissimus  revela- 
vit  mihi  quod  deberem  vivere  seciuidem  for  mam  sancti  Evangelii.  Testa- 
men  turn  Fr. 


INTRODUCTION 


xvii 


he  espoused  their  claims,  and  the  very  name  of  his  insti- 
tute had  at  first  a  political  signification  :  in  Assisi  as  in 
most  other  Italian  towns  there  were  majores  and  minores, 
the  popolo  grosso  and  the  popolo  minuto;  he  resolutely 
placed  himself  among  the  latter.  This  political  side  of  his 
apostolat e  needs  to  be  clearly  apprehended  if  we  would 
understand  its  amazing  success  and  the  wholly  unique 
character  of  the  Franciscan  movement  in  its  beginning. 

As  to  its  attitude  toward  the  Church,  it  was  that  of 
filial  obedience.  This  may  perhaps  appear  strange  at  first 
as  regards  an  unauthorized  preacher  who  comes  speaking 
to  the  world  in  the  name  of  his  own  immediate  personal 
inspiration.  But  did  not  most  of  the  men  of  '89  believe 
themselves  good  and  loyal  subjects  of  Louis  XYI.  ? 

The  Church  was  to  our  ancestors  what  the  fatherland 
is  to  us  ;  we  may  wish  to  remodel  its  government,  over- 
toil its  administration,  change  its  constitution,  but  we 
do  not  think  ourselves  less  good  patriots  for  that. 

In  the  same  way,  in  an  age  of  simple  faith  when  re- 
ligious beliefs  seemed  to  be  in  the  very  fibre  and  flesh  of 
humanity,  Dante,  without  ceasing  to  be  a  good  Catholic, 
could  attack  the  clergy  and  the  court  of  Rome  with  a 
violence  that  has  never  been  surpassed.  St^  Francis  so 
surely  believed  that  the  Church  had  become  unfaithful 
to  her  mission  that  he  could  speak  in  his  symbolic  lan- 
guage of  the  widowhood  of  his  Lady  Poverty,  who  from 
Christ's  time  to  his  own  had  found  no  husband.  How 
could  he  better  have  declared  his  purposes  or  revealed 
his  dreams  ? 

What  he  purposed  was  far  more  than  the  foundation 
of  an  order,  and  it  is  to  do  him  great  wrong  thus  to 
restrict  his  endeavor.  He  longed  for  a  true  awakening 
of  the  Church  in  the  name  of  the  evangelical  ideal  which 
he  had  regained.  All  Europe  awoke  with  a  start  when 
it  heard  of  these  penitents  from  a  little  Umbrian  town. 


xviii 


INTRODUCTION 


l^w^s-reported  that  they  had  craved  a  strange  privilege 
from  the— eourt  of  Kome  :  that  of  possessing  nothing. 
Men  saw  them  pass  by,  earning  their  bread  by  the  labor 
of  their  hands,  accepting  only  the  bare  necessities  of 
bodily  sustenance  from  them  to  whom  they  had  given 
with  lavish  hands  the  bread  of  life.  The  people  lifted 
up  their  heads,  breathing  in  with  deep  inspirations  the 
airs  of  a  springtime  upon  which  was  already  floating  the 
perfume  of  new  flowers. 

Here  and  there  in  the  world  there  are  many  souls 
capable  of  all  heroism,  if  only  they  can  see  before  them 
a  true  leader.  St.  Francis  became  for  these  the  guide 
they  had  longed  for,  and  whatever  was  best  in  humanity 
at  that  time  leaped  to  follow  in  his  footsteps. 

This  movement,  which  was  destined  to  result  in  the 
constitution  of  a  new  family  of  monks,  was  in  the  begin- 
ning anti-monastic.  It  is  not  rare  for  history  to  have 
similar  contradictions  to  record.  The  meek  Galilean 
who  preached  the  religion  of  a  personal  revelation,  with- 
out ceremonial  or  dogmatic  law,  triumphed  only  on  con- 
dition of  being  conquered,  and  of  permitting  his  words 
of  spirit  and  life  to  be  confiscated  by  a  church  essen- 
tially dogmatic  and  sacerdotal. 

In  the  same  way  the  Franciscan  movement  was  orig- 
inally, if  not  the  protest  of  the  Christian  consciousness 
against  monachism,  at  least  the  recognition  of  an  ideal 
singularly  higher  than  that  of  the  clergy  of  that  time. 
Let  us  picture  to  ourselves  the  Italy  of  the  beginning  of 
the  thirteenth  century  with  its  divisions,  its  perpetual 
warfare,  its  depopulated  country  districts,  the  impossi- 
bility of  tilling  the  fields  except  in  the  narrow  circle 
which  the  garrisons  of  the  towns  might  protect  ;  all 
these  cities  from  the  greatest  to  the  least  occupied  in 
watching  for  the  most  favorable  moment  for  falling  upon 
and  pillaging  their  neighbors  ;  sieges  terminated  by  un- 


INTRODUCTION 


xix 


speakable  atrocities,  and  after  all  this,  famine,  speedily 
followed  by  pestilence  to  complete  the  devastation. 
Then  let  us  picture  to  ourselves  the  rich  Benedictine 
abbeys,  veritable  fortresses  set  upon  the  hill-tops,  whence 
they  seemed  to  command  all  the  surrounding  plains. 
There  was  nothing  surprising  in  their  prosperity. 
Shielded  by  their  inviolability,  they  were  in  these  dis- 
ordered times  the  only  refuge  of  peaceful  souls  and 
timid  hearts.1  The  monks  were  in  great  majority  de- 
serters from  life,  who  for  motives  entirely  aside  from 
religion  had  taken  refuge  behind  the  only  walls  which  at 
this  period  were  secure. 

Overlook  this  as  we  may,  forget  as  we  may  the  demor- 
alization and  ignorance  of  the  inferior  clergy,  the  simony 
and  the  vices  of  the  prelates,  the  coarseness  and  avarice 
of  the  monks,  judging  the  Church  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury only  by  those  of  her  sons  who  do  her  the  most  honor  ; 
none  the  less  are  these  the  anchorites  who  flee  into  the 
desert  to  escape  from  wars  and  vices,  pausing  only  when 
they  are  very  sure  that  none  of  the  world's  noises  will  in- 
terrupt their  meditations.  Sometimes  they  will  draw 
away  with  them  hundreds  of  imitators,  to  the  solitudes  of 
Clairvaux,  of  the  Chartreuse,  of  Yallombrosa,  of  the 
Camaldoli  ;  but  even  when  they  are  a  multitude  they  are 
alone  ;  for  they  are  dead  to  the  world  and  to  their  breth- 
ren.   Each  cell  is  a  desert,  on  whose  threshold  they  cry 

0  beata  solitudo, 
O  sola  beatitudo. 

1  The  wealthiest  monasteries  of  France  are  of  the  twelfth  century  or 
were  enlarged  at  that  time:  Aries,  S.  Grilles,  S.  Sernin,  Cluny,  Yézelay, 
Brioude,  Issoire,  Paray-le-Monial.    The  same  was  the  case  in  Italy. 

Down  to  the  year  1000, 1,108  monasteries  had  been  founded  in  France. 
The  eleventh  century  saw  the  birth  of  326  and  the  twelfth  of  702. 
The  convents  of  Mount  Athos  in  their  present  state  give  us  a  very 
accurate  notion  of  the  great  monasteries  of  Europe  at  the  close  of  the 
twelfth  century. 


XX 


INTRODUCTION 


The  book  of  the  Imitation  is  the  picture  of  all  that  is 
purest  in  this  cloistered  life. 

But  is  this  abstinence  from  action  truly  Christian  ? 

No,  replied  St.  Francis.  He  for  his  part  would  do  like 
Jesus,  and  we  may  say  that  his  life  is  an  imitation  of 
Christ  singularly  more  real  than  that  of  Thomas  à 
Kempis. 

Jesus  went  indeed  into  the  desert,  but  only  that  he 
might  find  in  prayer  and  communion  with  the  heavenly 
Father  the  inspiration  and  strength  necessary  for  keep- 
ing up  the  struggle  against  evil.  Far  from  avoiding  the 
multitude,  he  sought  them  out  to  enlighten,  console,  and 
convert  them. 

This  is  what  St.  Francis  desired  to  imitate.  More  than 
once  he  felt  the  seduction  of  the  purely  contemplative 
life,  but  each  time  his  own  spirit  warned  him  that  this 
was  only  a  disguised  selfishness  ;  that  one  saves  oneself 
only  in  saving  others. 

When  he  saw  suffering,  wretchedness,  corruption,  in- 
stead of  fleeing  he  stopped  to  bind  up,  to  heal,  feeling  in 
his  heart  the  surging  of  waves  of  compassion.  He  not 
only  preached  love  to  others  ;  he  himself  was  ravished 
with  it  ;  he  sang  it,  and  what  was  of  greater  value,  he 
lived  it. 

There  had  indeed  been  preachers  of  love  before  his 
day,  but  most  generally  they  had  appealed  to  the  lowest 
selfishness.  They  had  thought  to  triumph  by  proving 
that  in  fact  to  give  to  others  is  to  put  one's  money  out  at 
a  usurious  interest.  "Give  to  the  poor,"  said  St.  Peter 
Chrysologus,1  "  that  you  may  give  to  yourself  ;  give  him  a 
crumb  in  order  to  receive  a  loaf  ;  give  him  a  shelter  to  re- 
ceive heaven." 

1  St.  Petrus  Chrysologus,  sermo  viii.,  de  jejunio  et  eleemosyna.  Da 
pauperi  utdes  tibi  :  da  micam  at  accipias  totum  panem  ;  da  tectum,  accipe 
cœlum. 


INTRODUCTION 


xxi 


There  was  nothing  like  this  in  Francis  ;  his  charity  is 
not  selfishness,  it  is  love.  He  went,  not  to  the  whole,  who 
need  no  physician,  but  to  the  sick,  the  forgotten,  the  dis- 
dained. He  dispensed  the  treasures  of  his  heart  accord- 
ing to  the  need  and  reserved  the  best  of  himself  for  the 
poorest  and  the  most  lost,  for  lepers  and  thieves. 

The  gaps  in  his  education  were  of  marvellous  service  to 
him.  More  learned,  the  formal  logic  of  the  schools 
would  have  robbed  him  of  that  flower  of  simplicity  which 
is  the  great  charm  of  his  life  ;  he  would  have  seen  the 
whole  extent  of  the  sore  of  the  Church,  and  would  no 
doubt  have  despaired  of  healing  it.  If  he  had  known  the 
ecclesiastical  discipline  he  would  have  felt  obliged  to  ob- 
serve it  ;  but  thanks  to  his  ignorance  he  could  often  vio- 
late it  without  knowing  it,1  and  be  a  heretic  quite  una- 
wares. 

We  can  now  determine  to  what  religious  family  St. 
Francis  belongs. 

Looking  at  the  question  from  a  somewhat  high  stand- 
point we  see  that  in  the  last  analysis  minds,  like  relig- 
ious systems,  are  to  be  found  in  two  great  families,  -stand- 
ing, so  to  say,  at  the  two  poles  of  thought.  These  two 
poles  are  only  mathematical  points,  they  do  not  exist  in 
concrete  reality  ;  but  for  all  that  we  can  set  them  down 
on  the  chart  of  philosophic  and  moral  ideas. 

There  are  religions  which  look  toward  divinity  and  re- 
ligions which  look  toward  man.  Here  again  the  line  of 
demarcation  between  the  two  families  is  purely  ideal  and 
artificial  ;  they  often  so  mingle  and  blend  with  one  an- 
other that  we  have  much  difficulty  in  distinguishing  them, 
especially  in  the  intermediate  zone  in  which  our  civiliza- 

1  By  what  right  did  lie  begin  to  preach  '?  By  what  right  did  he,  a 
mere  deacon,  admit  to  profession  and  cutoff  the  hair  of  a  young  girl  of 
eighteen  ?  That  is  an  episcopal  function,  one  which  can  only  devolve 
even  upon  priests  by  an  express  commission. 


xxii 


INTRODUCTION 


tion  finds  its  place  ;  but  if  we  go  toward  the  poles  we 
shall  find  their  characteristics  growing  gradually  distinct. 

In  the  religions  Avhich  look  toward  divinity  all  effort 
is  concentrated  on  worship,  and  especially  on  sacrifice. 
The  end  aimed  at  is  a  change  in  the  disposition  of  the 
gods.  They  are  mighty  kings  whose  support  or  favor 
one  must  purchase  by  gifts. 

Most  pagan  religions  belong  to  this  category  and  phari- 
saic  Judaism  as  well.  This  is  also  the  tendency  of  cer- 
tain Catholics  of  the  old  school  for  whom  the  great  thing 
is  to  appease  God  or  to  buy  the  protection  of  the  Vir- 
gin and  the  saints  by  means  of  prayers,  candles,  and 
masses. 

The  other  religions  look  toAvard  man  ;  their  effort  is  di- 
rected to  the  heart  and  conscience  with  the  purpose  of 
transforming  them.  Sacrifice  disappears,  or  rather  it 
changes  from  the  exterior  to  the  interior.  God  is  con- 
ceived of  as  a  father,  always  ready  to  welcome  him  who 
comes  to  him.  Conversion,  perfection,  sanctification  be- 
come the  pre-eminent  religious  acts.  Worship  and  prayer 
cease  to  be  incantations  and  become  reflection,  medita- 
tion, virile  effort  ;  while  in  religions  of  the  first  class  the 
clergy  have  an  essential  part,  as  intermediaries  between 
heaven  and  earth,  in  those  of  the  second  they  have 
none,  each  conscience  entering  into  direct  relations  with 
God. 

It  was  reserved  to  the  prophets  of  Israel  to  formulate, 
with  a  precision  before  unknown,  the  starting-point  of 
spiritual  worship. 

Bring  no  more  vain  offerings; 
I  have  a  horror  of  incense, 

Your  new  moons,  your  Sabhaths,  and  your  assemblies  ; 
When  you  multiply  prayers  I  will  not  hearken. 
Your  hands  are  fall  of  blood, 
Wash  you,  make  you  clean. 


INTRODUCTION 


xxiii 


Put  away  from  before  my  eyes  the  evil  of  your  ways, 
Cease  to  do  evil, 
Learn  to  do  well.1 

With  Isaiah  these  vehement  apostrophes  are  but 
flashes  of  genius,  but  with  Jesus  the  interior  change  be- 
comes at  once  the  principle  and  the  end  of  the  religious 
life.  His  promises  were  not  for  those  who  were  right 
with  the  ceremonial  law,  or  who  offered  the  greatest  num- 
ber of  sacrifices,  but  for  the  pure  in  heart,  for  men  of 
good  will. 

These  considerations  are  not  perhaps  without  their  use 
in  showing  the  spiritual  ancestry  of  the  Saint  of  Assisi. 

For  him,  as  for  St.  Paul  and  St.  Augustine,  conversion 
was  a  radical  and  complete  change,  the  act  of  will  by 
which  man  wrests  himself  from  the  slavery  of  sin  and 
places  himself  under  the  yoke  of  divine  authority. 
Thenceforth  prayer,  become  a  necessary  act  of  life,  ceases 
to  be  a  magic  formula  ;  it  is  an  impulse  of  the  heart,  it  is 
reflection  and  meditation  rising  above  the  commonplaces 
of  this  mortal  life,  to  enter  into  the  mystery  of  the  divine 
will  and  conform  itself  to  it  ;  it  is  the  act  of  the  atom 
which  understands  its  littleness,  but  which  desires, 
though  only  by  a  single  note,  to  be  in  harmony  with  the 
divine  symphony. 

Ecce  adsum  Domine,  ut  faciam  voluntatem  tuam. 

When  we  reach  these  heights  we  belong  not  to  a  sect, 
but  to  humanity  ;  we  are  like  those  wonders  of  nature 
which  the  accident  of  circumstances  has  placed  upon  the 
territory  of  this  or  that  people,  but  which  belong  to  all 
the  world,  because  in  fact  they  belong  to  no  one,  or 
rather  they  are  the  common  and  inalienable  property  of 
the  entire  human  race.  Homer,  Shakespeare,  Dante, 
Goethe,  Michael  Angelo,.  Rembrandt  belong  to  us  all  as 
much  as  the  ruins  of  Athens  or  Rome,  or,  rather,  they  be- 
1  Isaiah  i.  10-17.    Cf.  Joel  2,  Psalm  50. 


xxiv 


INTRODUCTION 


long  to  those  who  love  them  most  and  understand  them 
best. 

But  that  which  is  a  truism,  so  far  as  men  of  genius  in 
the  domain  of  imagination  or  thought  are  concerned,  still 
appears  like  a  paradox  when  we  speak  of  men  of  relig- 
ious genius.  The  Church  has  laid  such  absolute  claim 
to  them  that  she  has  created  in  her  own  favor  a  sort  of 
right.  It  cannot  be  that  this  arbitrary  confiscation  shall 
endure  forever.  To  prevent  it  we  have  not  to  perform 
an  act  of  negation  or  demolition  :  let  us  leave  to  the 
chapels  their  statues  and  their  relics,  and  far  from  be- 
littling the  saints,  let  us  make  their  true  grandeur  shine 
forth. 

It  is  time  to  say  a  few  words  concerning  the  difficul- 
ties of  the  work  here  presented  to  the  public.  History 
always  embraces  but  a  very  feeble  part  of  the  reality  : 
ignorant,  she  is  like  the  stories  children  tell  of  the  events 
that  have  occurred  before  their  eyes  ;  learned,  she  re- 
minds us  of  a  museum  organized  with  all  the  modern  im- 
provements. Instead  of  making  you  see  nature  with  its 
external  covering,  its  diffuse  life,  its  mysterious  echoes  in 
your  own  heart,  they  offer  you  a  herbarium. 

If  it  is  difficult  to  narrate  an  ordinary  event  of  our 
own  time,  it  is  far  more  so  to  describe  the  great  crises 
where  restless  humanity  is  seeking  its  true  path. 

The  first  duty  of  the  historian  is  to  forget  his  own  time 
and  country  and  become  the  sympathetic  and  interested 
contemporary  of  what  he  relates  ;  but  if  it  is  difficult  to 
give  oneself  the  heart  of  a  Greek  or  a  Eoman,  it  is  in- 
finitely more  so  to  give  oneself  a  heart  of  the  thirteenth 
century.  I  have  said  that  at  that  period  the  Middle  Age 
was  twenty  years  old,  and  the  feelings  of  the  twentieth 
year  are,  if  not  the  most  fugitive,  at  least  the  most  dif- 
ficult to  note  down.    Everyone  knows  that  it  is  impos- 


INTRODUCTION 


XXV 


sible  to  recall  the  feelings  of  youth  with  the  same  clear- 
ness as  those  of  childhood  or  mature  age.  Doubtless 
we  may  have  external  facts  in  the  memory,  but  we  can- 
not recall  the  sensations  and  the  sentiments  ;  the  con- 
fused forces  which  seek  to  move  us  are  then  all  at  work 
at  once,  and  to  speak  the  language  of  beyond  the  Rhine, 
it  is  the  essentially  phénoménal  hour  of  the  phenomena  that 
we  are  ;  everything  in  us  crosses,  intermingles,  collides, 
in  desperate  conflict  :  it  is  a  time  of  diabolic  or  divine  ex- 
citement. Let  a  few  years  pass,  and  nothing  in  the  world 
can  make  us  live  those  hours  over  again.  Where  was 
once  a  volcano,  we  perceive  only  a  heap  of  blackened 
ashes,  and  scarcely,  at  long  intervals,  will  a  chance  meet- 
ing, a  sound,  a  word,  awaken  memory  and  unseal  the 
fountain  of  recollection;  and  even  then  it  is  only  a  flash  ; 
we  have  had  but  a  glimpse  and  all  has  sunk  back  into 
shadow  and  silence. 

We  find  the  same  difficulty  when  we  try  to  take  note 
of  the  fiery  enthusiasms  of  the  thirteenth  century,  its 
poetic  inspirations,  its  amorous  and  chaste  visions — all 
this  is  thrown  up  against  a  background  of  coarseness, 
wretchedness,  corruption,  and  folly. 

The  men  of  that  time  had  all  the  vices  except  triviality, 
all  the  virtues  except  moderation  ;  they  were  either  ruf- 
fians or  saints.  Life  was  rude  enough  to  kill  feeble  or- 
ganisms ;  and  thus  characters  had  an  energy  unknown 
to-day.  It  was  forever  necessary  to  provide  beforehand 
against  a  thousand  dangers,  to  take  those  sudden  resolu- 
tions in  which  one  risks  his  life.  Open  the  chronicle  of 
Fra  Salimbeni  and  you  will  be  shocked  to  find  that  the 
largest  place  is  taken  up  with  the  account  of  the  annual 
expeditions  of  Parma  against  the  neighboring  cities,  or 
of  the  neighboring  cities  against  Parma.  What  would  it 
have  been  if  this  chronicle,  instead  of  being  written  by 
a  monk  of  uncommonly  open  mind,  a  lover  of  music,  at 


xxvi 


INTRODUCTION 


certain  times  an  ardent  Joachimite,  an  indefatigable 
traveller,  had  been  written  by  a  warrior  ?  And  this  is 
not  all  ;  these  wars  between  city  and  city  were  complicated 
with  civil  dissensions,  plots  were  hatched  periodically, 
conspirators  were  massacred  if  they  were  discovered,  or 
massacred  and  exiled  others  in  their  turn  if  they  were 
triumphant.1  When  we  picture  to  ourselves  this  state 
of  things  dominated  by  the  grand  struggles  of  the  papacy 
against  the  empire,  heretics,  and  infidels,  we  may  under- 
stand how  difficult  it  is  to  describe  such  a  time. 

The  imagination  being  haunted  by  horrible  or  entranc- 
ing pictures  like  those  of  the  frescos  in  the  Gampo  Santo 
of  Pisa,  men  were  always  thinking  of  heaven  and  hell  ; 
they  informed  themselves  about  them  with  the  feverish 
curiosity  of  emigrants,  who  pass  their  days  on  shipboard 
in  trying  to  picture  that  spot  in  America  where  in  a  few 
days  they  will  pitch  their  tent. 

Every  monk  of  any  notoriety  must  have  gone  through 
this.  Dante's  poem  is  not  an  isolated  work  ;  it  is  the 
noblest  result  of  a  condition  which  had  given  birth  to 
hundreds  of  compositions,  and  Alighieri  had  little  more 
to  do  than  to  co-ordinate  the  works  of  his  predecessors 
and  vivify  them  with  the  breath  of  his  own  genius. 

The  unsettled  state  of  men's  minds  was  unimaginable. 
That  unhealthy  curiosity  which  lies  at  the  bottom  of  the 
human  heart,  and  which  at  the  present  day  impels  men  to 
seek  for  refined  and  even  perverse  enjoyments,  impelled 
men  of  that  time  to  devotions  which  seem  like  a  defiance 
to  common  sense. 

Never  had  hearts  been  shaken  with  such  terrors,  nor 

1  The  chronicles  of  Orvieto  (Archivio,  storko  italiano,  t.  i.,  of  1889, 
pp.  7  and  following)  are  nothing  more  than  a  list,  as  melancholy  as 
they  are  tedious,  of  wars,  which,  during  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth 
centuries,  all  the  places  of  that  region  carried  on,  from  the  greatest  to 
the  smallest. 


INTRODUCTION 


XXV  ii 


ever  thrilled  with,  such  radiant  hopes.  The  noblest 
hymns  of  the  liturgy,  the  St  abat  and  the  Dies  Irce,  come 
to  us  from  the  thirteenth  century,  and  we  may  well  say 
that  never  has  the  human  plaint  been  more  agonized. 

When  we  look  through  history,  not  to  find  accounts  of 
battles  or  of  the  succession  of  dynasties,  but  to  try  to 
grasp  the  evolution  of  ideas  and  feelings,  when  we  seek 
above  all  to  discover  the  heart  of  man  and  of  epochs,  we 
perceive,  on  arriving  at  the  thirteenth  century,  that  a 
fresh  wind  has  blown  over  the  world,  the  human  lyre  has 
a  new  string,  the  lowest,  the  most  profound  ;  one  which 
sings  of  woes  and  hopes  to  which  the  ancient  world  had 
not  vibrated. 

In  the  breast  of  -the  men  of  that  time  we  think  some- 
times we  feel  the  beating  of  a  woman's  heart  :  they  have 
exquisite  sentiments,  delightful  inspirations,  with  absurd 
terrors,  fantastic  angers,  infernal  cruelties.  Weakness  and 
fear  often  make  them  insincere  ;  they  have  the  idea  of  the 
grand,  the  beautiful,  the  ugly,  but  that  of  order  is  want- 
ing ;  they  fast  or  feast  ;  the  notion  of  the  laws  of  nature, 
so  deeply  graven  in  our  own  minds,  is  to  them  entirely  a 
stranger;  the  words  possible  and  impossible  have  for 
them  no  meaning.  Some  give  themselves  to  God,  others 
sell  themselves  to  the  devil,  but  not  one  feels  himself 
strong  enough  to  walk  alone,  strong  enough  to  have  no 
need  to  hold  on  by  some  one's  skirt. 

Peopled  with  spirits  and  demons  nature  appeared  to 
them  singularly  animated  ;  in  her  presence  they  have  all 
the  emotions  which  a  child  experiences  at  night  before 
the  trees  on  the  roadside  and  the  vague  forms  of  the 
rocks. 

Unfortunately,  our  language  is  a  very  imperfect  instru- 
ment for  rendering  all  this  ;  it  is  neither  musical  nor 
flexible  ;  since  the  seventeenth  century  it  has  been  deemed 
seemly  to  keep  one's  emotions  to  oneself,  and  the  old 


1 

xxviii  INTRODUCTION 

words  which  served  to  note  states  of  the  soul  have  fallen 
into  neglect;  the  Imitation  and  the  Fioretti  have  become 
untranslatable. 

More  than  this,  in  a  history  like  the  present  one,  we 
must  give  a  large  place  to  the  Italian  spirit  ;  it  is  evident 
that  in  a  country  where  they  call  a  chapel  basilica  and  a 
tiny  house  palazzo,  or  in  speaking  to  a  seminarist  say 
"  Your  Reverence,"  words  have  not  the  same  value  as  on 
this  side  of  the  Alps. 

The  Italians  have  an  imagination  which  enlarges  and 
simplifies.  They  see  the  forms  and  outlines  of  men  and 
things  more  than  they  grasp  their  spirit.  What  they 
most  admire  in  Michael  Angelo  is  gigantic  forms,  noble 
and  proud  attitudes,  while  we  better  understand  his  secret 
thoughts,  hidden  sorrows,  groans,  and  sighs. 

Place  before  their  eyes  a  picture  by  Rembrandt,  and 
more  often  than  not  it  will  appear  to  them  ugly  ;  its  charm 
cannot  be  caught  at  a  glance  as  in  those  of  their  artists  ; 
to  see  it  you  must  examine  it,  make  an  effort,  and  with 
them  effort  is  the  beginning  of  pain. 

Do  not  ask  them,  then,  to  understand  the  pathos  of 
things,  to  be  touched  by  the  mysterious  and  almost  fan- 
ciful emotion  which  northern  hearts  discover  and  enjoy 
in  the  works  of  the  Amsterdam  master.  No,  instead  of  a 
forest  they  want  a  few  trees,  standing  out  clearly  against 
the  horizon  ;  instead  of  a  multitude  swarming  in  the  pe- 
numbra of  reality,  a  few  personages,  larger  than  nature, 
forming  harmonious  groups  in  an  ideal  temple. 

The  genius  of  a  people 1  is  all  of  a  piece  :  they  apply  to 

1  Do  not  forget  that  in  the  thirteenth  century  Italy  was  not  a  mere 
geographical  expression.  It  was  of  all  the  countries  of  Europe  the  one 
which,  notwithstanding  its  partitions,  had  the  clearest  consciousness  of 
its  unity.  The  expression  profectus  et  honor  Italiœ  often  appeared  from 
the  pen  of  Innocent  III.  See,  for  instance,  the  bull  of  April  16,  1198, 
Mirari  cogiimir,  addressed  particularly  to  the  Assisans. 


INTRODUCTION 


xxix 


history  the  same  processes  that  they  apply  to  the  arts. 
While  the  Germanic  spirit  considers  events  rather  in 
their  evolution,  in  their  complex  becoming,  the  Italian 
spirit  takes  them  at  a  given  moment,  overlooks  the 
shadows,  the  clouds,  the  mists,  everything  that  makes  the 
line  indistinct,  brings  out  the  contour  sharply,  and 
thus  constructs  a  very  lucid  story,  which  is  a  delight  to 
the  eyes,  but  which  is  little  more  than  a  symbol  of  the 
reality. 

At  other  times  it  takes  a  man,  separates  him  from  the 
unnamed  crowd,  and  by  a  labor  often  unconscious,  makes 
him  the  ideal  type  of  a  whole  epoch.1 

Certainly  there  is  in  every  people  a  tendency  to  give 
themselves  a  circle  of  divinities  and  heroes  who  are,  so  to 
say,  the  incarnation  of  its  instincts  ;  but  generally  that 
requires  the  long  labor  of  centuries.  The  Italian  charac- 
ter will  not  suffer  this  slow  action  ;  as  soon  as  it  recog- 
nizes a  man  it  says  so,  it  even  shouts  it  aloud  if  that  is 
necessary,  and  makes  him  enter  upon  immortality  while 
still  alive.  Thus  legend  almost  confounds  itself  with  his- 
tory, and  it  becomes  very  difficult  to  reduce  men  to  their 
true  proportions. 

We  must  not,  then,  ask  too  much  of  history.  The  more 
beautiful  is  the  dawn,  the  less  one  can  describe  it.  The 
most  beautiful  things  in  nature,  the  flower  and  the  but- 
terfly, should  be  touched  only  by  delicate  hands. 

The  effort  here  made  to  indicate  the  variegated,  waver- 
ing tints  which  form  the  atmosphere  in  which  St.  Francis 

1  Note  what  the  Fioretti  say  of  Brother  Bernard  :  "  Stava  solo  sulle 
cime  dei  monti  altissimi  contemplando  le  cose  celesti,"  Fior.,  28.  The 
learned  historian  of  Assisi,  Mr.  Cristofani,  has  used  similar  expressions  ; 
speaking  of  St.  Francis,  he  says  :  "  JSTuovo  Ghristo  in  somma  e  pero  degno 
d'essere  riguardato  come  la  piu  gigantesca,  la  piu  splendida,  la  piu  car  a 
tra  le  grandi  figure  campeggiantinelV  aere  del  medio  evo"  {Storia  d?  Assisi, 
t.  1.,  p.  70,  ed.  of  1885). 


XXX 


INTRODUCTION 


lived  is  therefore  of  very  uncertain  success.  It  was  per- 
haps presumptuous  to  undertake  it. 

Happily  we  are  no  longer  in  the  time  when  historians 
thought  they  had  done  the  right  thing  when  they  had 
reduced  everything  to  its  proper  size,  contenting  them- 
selves with  denying  or  omitting  everything  in  the  life  of 
the  heroes  of  humanity  which  rises  above  the  level  of  our 
every- day  experience. 

No  doubt  Francis  did  not  meet  on  the  road  to  Sienna 
three  pure  and  gentle  virgins  come  from  heaven  to  greet 
him  ;  the  devil  did  not  overturn  rocks  for  the  sake  of 
terrifying  him  ;  but  when  Ave  deny  these  visions  and  ap- 
paritions, we  are  victims  of  an  error  graver,  perhaps, 
than  that  of  those  who  affirm  them. 

The  first  time  that  I  was  at  Assisi  I  arrived  in  the 
middle  of  the  night.  When  the  sun  rose,  flooding  every- 
thing with  warmth  and  light,  the  old  basilica  1  seemed 
suddenly  to  quiver;  one  might  have  said  that  it  wished 
to  speak  and  sing.  Giotto's  frescos,  but  now  invisible, 
awoke  to  a  strange  life,  you  might  have  thought  them 
painted  the  evening  before  so  much  alive  the}^  were  ; 
everything  was  moving  without  awkwardness  or  jar. 

I  returned  six  months  later.  A  scaffold  had  been  put 
rip  in  the  middle  of  the  nave  ;  upon  it  an  art  critic  was 
examining  the  paintings,  and  as  the  day  was  overcast  he 
threw  upon  the  walls  the  beams  of  a  lamp  with  a  reflector. 
Then  you  saw  arms  thrown  out,  faces  grimacing,  without 
unity,  without  harmony  ;  the  most  exquisite  figures  took 
on  something  fantastic  and  grotesque. 

He  came  down  triumphant,  with  a  portfolio  stuffed 
with  sketches  ;  here  a  foot,  there  a  muscle,  farther  on  a 
bit  of  face,  and  I  could  not  refrain  from  musing  on  the 
frescos  as  I  had  seen  them  bathed  in  sunlight. 

The  sun  and  the  lamp  are  both  deceivers  ;  they  trans- 

1  It  remains  open  all  night. 


INTRODUCTION 


xxxi 


form  what  they  show  ;  but  if  the  truth  must  be  told  I 
own  to  my  preference  for  the  falsehoods  of  the  sun. 

History  is  a  landscape,  and  like  those  of  nature  it  is 
continually  changing.  Two  persons  who  look  at  it  at 
the  same  time  do  not  find  in  it  the  same  charm,  and  you 
yourself,  if  you  had  it  continually  before  your  eyes, 
would  never  see  it  twice  alike.  The  general  lines  are 
permanent,  but  it  needs  only  a  cloud  to  hide  the  most 
important  ones,  as  it  needs  only  a  jet  of  light  to  bring  out 
such  or  such  a  detail  and  give  it  a  false  value.  * 

When  I  began  this  page  the  sun  was  disappearing  be- 
hind the  ruins  of  the  Castle  of  Crussol  and  the  splendors 
of  the  sunset  gave  it  a  shining  aureola;  the  light  flooded 
everything,  and  you  no  longer  saw  anywhere  the  damage 
which  wars  have  inflicted  upon  the  old  feudal  manor.  I 
looked,  almost  thinking  I  could  perceive  at  the  window 
the  figure  of  the  chatelaine  .  .  .  Twilight  has  come, 
and  now  there  is  nothing  up  there  but  crumbling  walls, 
a  discrowned  tower,  nothing  but  ruins  and  rubbish, 
which  seem  to  beg  for  pity. 

It  is  the  same  with  the  landscapes  of  history.  Narrow 
minds  cannot  accommodate  themselves  to  these  perpetual 
transformations  :  they  want  anjobjecti^^ 
the  author  will  study  the  people  as  a  chemist  studies  a 
body.  It  is  very  possible  that  there  may  be  laws  for 
historic  evolution  and  social  transformations  as  exact  as 
those  of  chemical  combinations,  and  we  must  hope  that 
in  the  end  they  will  be  discovered  ;  but  for  the  present 
there  is  no  purely  objective  truth  of  history. 

To  write  history  we  must  think  it,  and  to  think  it  is  to 
transform  it.  Within  a  few  years,  it  is  true,  men  have 
believed  they  had  found  the  secret  of  objectivity,  in  the 
publication  of  original  documents.  This  is  a  true  prog- 
ress which  renders  inestimable  service,  but  here  again 
we  must  not  deceive  ourselves  as  to  its  significance.  All 


xxxii 


INTRODUCTION 


the  documents  on  an  epoch  or  an  event  cannot  usually  be 
published,  a  selection  must  be  made,  and  in  it  will  neces- 
sarily appear  the  turn  of  mind  of  him  who  makes  it.  Let 
us  admit  that  all  that  can  be  found  is  published  ;  but 
alas,  the  most  unusual  movements  have  generally  the  few- 
est documents.  Take,  for  instance,  the  religious  history 
of  the  Middle  Ages  :  it  is  already  a  pretty  delicate  task 
to  collect  official  documents,  such  as  bulls,  briefs,  con- 
ciliary  canons,  monastic  constitutions,  etc.,  but  do  these 
documents  contain  all  the  life  of  the  Church  ?  Much  is 
still  wanting,  and  to  my  mind  the  movements  which  se- 
cretly agitated  the  masses  are  much  more  important,  al- 
though to  testify  to  them  we  have  only  a  few  fragments. 

Poor  heretics,  they  were  not  only  imprisoned  and 
burned,  but  their  books  were  destroyed  and  everything 
that  spoke  of  them  ;  and  more  than  one  historian,  finding 
scarcely  a  trace  of  them  in  his  heaps  of  documents,  for- 
gets these  prophets  with  their  strange  visions,  these  poet- 
monks  who  from  the  depths  of  their  cells  made  the  world 
to  thrill  and  the  papacy  to  tremble. 

Objective  history  is  then  a  utopia.  We  create  God  in 
our  own  image,  and  we  impress  the  mark  of  our  person- 
ality in  places  where  we  least  expect  to  find  it  again. 

But  by  dint  of  talking  about  the  tribunal  of  history  we 
have  made  most  authors  think  that  they  owe  to  themselves 
and  their  readers  definitive  and  irrevocable  judgments. 

It  is  always  easier  to  pronounce  a  sentence  than  to 
wait,  to  reserve  one's  opinion,  to  re-examine.  The  crowd 
which  has  put  itself  out  to  be  present  at  a  trial  is  almost 
always  furious  with  the  judges  when  they  reserve  the  case 
for  further  information  ;  its  mind  is  so  made  that  it  re- 
quires precision  in  things  which  will  bear  it  the  least  ;  it 
puts  questions  right  and  left,  as  children  do  ;  if  you  ap- 
pear to  hesitate  or  to  be  embarrassed  you  are  lost  in  its 
estimation,  you  are  evidently  only  an  ignoramus. 


INTRODUCTION 


xxxiii 


But  perhaps  below  the  Areopagites,  obliged  by  their 
functions  to  pronounce  sentence,  there  is  place  at  the 
famous  tribunal  for  a  simple  spectator  who  has  come  in 
by  accident.  He  has  made  out  a  brief  and  would  like 
very  simply  to  tell  his  neighbors  his  opinion. 

This,  then,  is  not  a  history  ad  probandum,  to  use  the 
ancient  formula.  Is  this  to  say  that  I  have  only  desired 
to  give  the  reader  a  moment  of  diversion  ?  That  would 
be  to  understand  my  thought  very  ill.  In  the  grand 
spectacles  of  history  as  in  those  of  nature  there  is  some- 
thing divine  ;  from  it  our  minds  and  hearts  gain  a  virtue 
at  once  pacifying  and  encouraging,  we  experience  the  sal- 
utary sensation  of  littleness,  and  seeing  the  beauties  and 
the  sadnesses  of  the  past  we  learn  better  how  to  judge 
the  present  hour. 

In  one  of  the  frescos  of  the  Upper  Church  of  Assisi, 
Giotto  has  represented  St.  Clara  and  her  companions 
coming  out  from  St.  Damian  all  in  tears,  to  kiss  their 
spiritual  father's  corpse  as  it  is  being  carried  to  its  last 
home.  With  an  artist's  liberty  he  has  made  the  chapel  a 
rich  church  built  of  precious  marbles. 

Happily  the  real  St.  Damian  is  still  there,  nestled 
under  some  olive-trees  like  a  lark  under  the  heather  ;  it 
still  has  its  ill-made  walls  of  irregular  stones,  like  those 
which  bound  the  neighboring  fields.  Which  is  the  more 
beautiful,  the  ideal  temple  of  the  artist's  fancy,  or  the 
poor  chapel  of  reality  ?    No  heart  will  be  in  doubt. 

Francis's  official  historians  have  done  for  his  biography 
what  Giotto  did  for  his  little  sanctuary.  In  general  they 
have  done  him  ill-service.  Their  embellishments  have 
hidden  the  real  St.  Francis,  who  was,  in  fact,  infinitely 
nobler  than  they  have  made  him  to  be.  Ecclesiastical 
writers  appear  to  make  a  great  mistake  in  thus  adorn- 
ing the  lives  of  their  heroes,  and  only  mentioning  their 
edifying  features.    They  thus  give  occasion,  even  to  the 


xxxiv 


INTKODUCTION 


most  devout,  to  suspect  their  testimony.  Besides,  by 
thus  surrounding  their  saints  with  light  they  make  them 
superhuman  creatures,  having  nothing  in  common  with 
us  ;  they  are  privileged  characters,  marked  with  the 
divine  seal  ;  they  are,  as  the  litanies  say,  vials  of  election, 
into  which  God  has  poured  the  sweetest  perfumes  ;  their 
sanctity  is  revealed  almost  in  spite  of  themselves  ;  they 
are  born  saints  as  others  are  born  kings  or  slaves, 
their  life  is  set  out  against  the  golden  background  of 
a  tryptich,  and  not  against  the  sombre  background  of 
reality. 

By  such  means  the  saints,  perhaps,  gain  something  in 
the  respect  of  the  superstitious  ;  but  their  lives  lose 
something  of  virtue  and  of  communicable  strength.  For- 
getting that  they  were  men  like  ourselves,  we  no  longer 
hear  in  our  conscience  the  command,  "  Go  and  do  like- 
wise." 

It  is,  then,  a  work  of  piety  to  seek  behind  the  legend 
for  the  history.  Is  it  presumptuous  to  ask  our  readers 
to  try  to  understand  the  thirteenth  century  and  love  St. 
Francis  ?  They  will  be  amply  rewarded  for  the  effort, 
and  will  soon  find-  an  unexpected  charm  in  these  too 
meagre  landscapes,  these  incorporate  souls,  these  sickly 
imaginations  which  will  pass  before  their  eyes.  Love  is 
the  true  key  of  history. 

A  book  has  always  a  great  number  of  authors,  and  the 
following  pages  owe  much  to  the  researches  of  others  ;  I 
have  tried  in  the  notes  to  show  the  whole  value  of  these 
debts. 

I  have  also  had  colaborers  to  whom  it  will  be  more  dif- 
ficult for  me  to  express  my  gratitude.  I  refer  to  the 
librarians  of  the  libraries  of  Italy  and  their  assistants  ; 
it  is  impossible  to  name  them  all,  their  faces  are  better 
known  to  me  than  their  names,  but  I  would  here  say  that 
during  long  months  passed  in  the  various  collections  of 


INTRODUCTION 


XXXV 


the  Peninsula',  all,  even  to  the  most  humble  employees, 
have  shown  a  tireless  helpfulness  even  at  those  periods 
of  the  year  when  the  number  of  attendants  was  the  small- 
est. 

Professor  Alessandro  Leto,  who,  barely  recovered  from 
a  grave  attack  of  influenza,  kindly  served  as  my  guide 
among  the  archives  of  Assisi,  deserves  a  very  particular 
mention.  To  the  Syndic  and  municipality  of  that  city  I 
desire  also  to  express  my  gratitude. 

I  cannot  close  without  a  warm  remembrance  to  the 
spiritual  sons  of  St.  Francis  dispersed  in  the  mountains 
of  Umbria  and  Tuscany. 

Dear  dwellers  in  St.  Damian,  Portiuncula,  the  Carceri, 
the  Yerna,  Monte  Colombo,  you  perhaps  remember  the 
strange  pilgrim  who,  though  he  wore  neither  the  frock 
nor  the  cord,  used  to  talk  with  you  of  the  Seraphic  Father 
with  as  much  love  as  the  most  pious  Franciscan  ;  you 
used  to  be  surprised  at  his  eagerness  to  see  everything, 
to  look  at  everything,  to  thread  all  the  unexplored  paths. 
You  often  tried  to  restrain  him  by  telling  him  that  there 
was  not  the  smallest  relic,  the  most  meagre  indulgence 
in  the  far-away  grottos  to  which  he  was  dragging  you, 
but  you  always  ended  by  going  with  him,  thinking  that 
none  but  a  Frenchman  could  be  possessed  by  a  devotion 
so  fervent  and  so  imprudent. 

Thank  you,  pious  anchorites  of  Greccio,  thank  you  for 
the  bread  that  you  went  out  and  begged  when  I  arrived 
at  your  hermitage  benumbed  with  cold  and  hunger.  If 
3*011  read  these  lines,  read  here  my  gratitude  and  also  a 
little  admiration.  You  are  not  all  saints,  but  nearly  all 
of  you  have  hours  of  saintliness,  flights  of  pure  love. 

If  some  pages  of  this  book  give  you  pain,  turn  them 
over  quickly  ;  let  me  think  that  others  of  them  will  give 
you  pleasure,  and  will  make  the  name  you  bear,  if  possi- 
ble, still  more  precious  to  you  than  it  now  is, 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


CHAPTER  I 

YOUTH 

Assisi  is  to-day  very  much  what  it  was  six  or  seven 
hundred  years  ago.  The  feudal  castle  is  in  ruins,  but 
the  aspect  of  the  city  is  just  the  same.  Its  long-deserted 
streets,  bordered  by  ancient  houses,  lie  in  terraces  half- 
way up  the  steep  hill-side.  Above  it  Mount  Subasio  1 
proudly  towers,  at  its  feet  lies  outspread  all  the  Umbrian 
plain  from  Perugia  to  Spoleto.  The  crowded  houses 
clamber  up  the  rocks  like  children  a-tiptoe  to  see  all  that 
is  to  be  seen;  they  succeed  so  well  that  every  window 
gives  the  whole  panorama  set  in  its  frame  of  rounded 
hills,  from  whose  summits  castles  and  villages  stand 
sharply  out  against  a  sky  of  incomparable  purity. 

These  simple  dwellings  contain  no  more  than  rive  or 
six  little  rooms,2  but  the  rosy  hues  of  the  stone  of  which 
they  are  built  give  them  a  wonderfully  cheerful  air.  The 
one  in  which,  according  to  the  story,  St.  Francis  was 
born  has  almost  entirely  disappeared,  to  make  room  for  a 
church  ;  but  the  street  is  so  modest,  and  all  that  remains 

1  Eleven  hundred  and  one  metres  above  the  level  of  the  sea  ;  the 
plain  around  Assisi  has  an  average  of  two  hundred,  and  the  town  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty,  metres  above. 

?  As  in  the  majority  of  Tuscan  cities  the  dimensions  of  the  houses 
were  formerly  fixed  by  law. 


2 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


of  the  palazzo  del  genitori  di  San  Francesco  is  so  precisely 
like  the  neighboring  houses  that  the  tradition  must  be 
correct.  Francis  entered  into  glory  in  his  lifetime  ;  it 
would  be  surprising  if  a  sort  of  worship  had  not  from 
the  first  been  centred  around  the  house  in  which  he  saw 
the  light  and  where  he  passed  the  first  twenty-five  years 
of  his  life. 

He  was  born  about  1182. 1  The  biographies  have  pre- 
served to  us  few  details  about  his  parents.2  His  father, 
Pietro  Bernardone,  was  a  wealthy  cloth-merchant.  We 
know  how  different  was  the  life  of  the  merchants  of  that 

1  The  biographies  say  that  he  died  (October  3,  1226)  in  his  forty-fifth 
year.  But  the  terms  are  not  precise  enough  to  make  the  date  1181  im- 
probable. For  that  matter  the  question  is  of  small  importance.  A 
Franciscan  of  Erfurt,  about  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  fixes 
the  date  at  1182.    Pertz,  vol.  xxiv.,  p.  193. 

-  A  number  of  different  genealogies  have  been  fabricated  for  Francis  ; 
they  prove  only  one  thing,  the  wreck  of  the  Franciscan  idea.  How 
little  they  understood  their  hero,  who  thought  to  magnify  and  glorify 
him  by  making  him  spring  from  a  noble  family!  "  Quœ  vero"  says 
Father  Suysken,  S.  J.,  ilde  ejus  gentUitio  insigni  dissent  Waddingus, 
non  lubet  mild  aUingere.  Factis  et  rirtutibus  eluxit  S.  Francisais  non 
proavorum  insignibus  out  titulis,  quos  nee  desideravit."  (A.  SS.  p.  557a.) 
It  could  not  be  better  said. 

In  the  fourteenth  century  a  whole  cycle  of  legends  had  gathered 
about  his  birth.  It  could  not  have  been  otherwise.  They  all  grow  out 
of  the  story  that  tells  of  an  old  man  who  comes  knocking  at  the 
parents'  door,  begging  them  to  let  him  take  the  infant  in  his  arms, 
when  he  announces  that  it  will  do  great  things.  Under  this  form  the 
episode  certainly  presents  nothing  impossible,  but  very  soon  marvellous 
incidents  begin  to  gather  around  this  nucleus  until  it  becomes  unrecog- 
nizable. Bartholomew  of  Pisa  has  preserved  it  in  almost  its  primitive 
form.  Conform.,  28a  2.  Francis  certainly  had  several  brothers  [3  Soc, 
9.  Mater  .  .  .  quœ  cum  prœ  ceteris  filiis  dUigebat],  but  they  have  left 
no  trace  in  history  except  the  incident  related  farther  on.  Vide  p.  44. 
Christofani  publishes  several  official  pieces  concerning  Angela,  St. 
Francis's  brother,  and  his  descendants:  Storie  d1  Assist,  vol.  i.,  p.  78  ff. 
In  these  documents  Angelo  is  called  Angelus  Fke,  and  his  son  Johan- 
nectus  oli.n  Angeli  domine  Pier,  appellations  which  might  be  cited  in 
favor  of  the  noble  origin  of  Pica. 


YOUTH 


3 


period  from  what  it  is  to-day.  A  great-  portion  of  their 
time  was  spent  in  extensive  journeys  for  the  purchase  of 
goods.  Such  tours  were  little  short  of  expeditions.  The 
roads  being  insecure,  a  strong  escort  was  needed  for  the 
journey  to  those  famous  fairs  where,  for  long  weeks  at 
a  time,  merchants  from  the  most  remote  parts  of  Europe 
were  gathered  together.  In  certain  cities,  Montpellier 
for  example,  the  fair  was  perpetual.  Benjamin  of  Tudela 
shows  us  that  city  frequented  by  all  nations,  Christian 
and  Mohammedan.  "  One  meets  there  merchants  from 
Africa,  from  Italy,  Egypt,  Palestine,  Greece,  Gaul, 
Spain,  and  England,  so  that  one  sees  men  of  all  lan- 
guages, with  the  Genoese  and  the  Pisans." 

Among  all  these  merchants  the  richest  were  those  who 
dealt  in  textile  stuffs.  They  were  literally  the  bankers 
of  the  time,  and  their  heavy  wagons  were  often  laden 
with  the  sums  levied  by  the  popes  in  England  01 
Prance. 

Their  arrival  at  a  castle  was  one  of  the  great  events. 
They  were  kept  as  long  as  possible,  everyone  being  eager 
for  the  news  they  brought.  It  is  easy  to  understand 
how  close  must  have  been  their  relations  with  the  no- 
bility ;  in  certain  countries,  Provence  for  example,  the 
merchants  were  considered  as  nobles  of  a  second  order.1 

Bernardone  often  made  these  long  journeys  ;  he  went 
even  as  far  as  France,  and  by  this  we  must  surely  un- 
derstand Northern  France,  and  particularly  Champagne, 
which  was  the  seat  of  commercial  exchange  between 
Northern  and  Southern  Europe. 

He  was  there  at  the  very  time  of  his  son's  birth.  The 
mother,  presenting  the  child  at  the  font  of  San  Eufino," 
had  him  baptized  by  the  name  of  John,  but  the  father 

1  Documentary  History  of  Languedoc,  iii..  p.  607. 
-  The  Cathedral  of  Assisi.    To  tins  day  all  trie  children  of  the  town 
are  baptized  there  ;  the  other  churches  are  without  fonts. 


4 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


on  his  return  chose  to  call  him  Francis.1  Had  he  al- 
îeady  determined  on  the  education  he  was  to  give  the 
child  ;  did  he  name  him  thus  because  he  even  then  in- 
tended to  bring  him  up  after  the  French  fashion,  to  make 
a  little  Frenchman  of  him  ?  It  is  by  no  means  improb- 
able. Perhaps,  indeed,  the  name  was  only  a  sort  of 
grateful  homage  tendered  by  the  Assisan  burgher  to  his 
noble  clients  beyond  the  Alps.  However  this  may  be, 
the  child  was  taught  to  speak  French,  and  always  had  a 
special  fondness  for  both  the  language  and  the  country.2 

These  facts  about  Bernardo-lie  are  of  real  importance  ; 
they  reveal  the  influences  in  the  midst  of  which  Francis 
grew  up.  Merchants,  indeed,  play  a  considerable  part 
in  the  religious  movements  of  the  thirteenth  century. 
Their  calling  in  some  sense  forced  them  to  become  col- 
porters  of  ideas.  ^What  else  could  they  do,  on  arriving 
in  a  country,  but  answer  those  who  asked  for  news? 
And  the  news  most  eagerly  looked  for  was  religious 
news,  for  men's  minds  were  turned  upon  very  different 
subjects  then  from  now.  They  accommodated  themselves 
to  the  popular  wish,  observing,  hearkening  everywhere, 
keeping  eyes  and  ears  open,  glad  to  find  anything  to 
tell  ;  and  little  by  little  many  of  them  became  active 
propagandists  of  ideas  concerning  which  at  first  they 
had  been  simply  curious. 

The  importance  of  the  part  thus  played  by  the  mer- 

'  3  Soc,  1  ;  2  Cel.,  1,1.  Vide  also  3  Soc.  edition  of  Pesaro,  1831. 
The  langue  d'oïl  was  at  this  epoch  the  international  language  of 
Europe  ;  in  Italy  it  was  the  language  of  games  and  tourneys,  and  was 
spoken  in  the  petty  princely  courts  of  Northern  Italy.  Vide  Dante, 
De  vulgari  eloquio,  lib.  I.,  cap.  x.  Brunetto  Latini  wrote  in  French  he- 
cause  "the  speech  of  France  is  more  delectable  and  more  common  to 
all  people."  At  the  other  end  of  Europe  the  Abbot  of  Stade,  in  West- 
phalia, spoke  of  the  nobility  of  the  Gallic  dialect.  Ann.  1224  apud  Pertz, 
Script,  xvi.  We  shall  find  St.  Francis  often  making  allusions  to  the 
tales  of  the  Pound  Table  and  the  Ohtinson  rip  Roland. 


YOUTH 


5 


chants  as  they  came  and  went,  everywhere  sowing  the 
new  ideas  which  they  had  gathered  up  in  their  travels, 
has  not  been  put  in  a  clear  enough  light  ;  they  were 
often,  unconsciously  and  quite  involuntarily,  the  carriers 
of  ideas  of  all  kinds,  especially  of  heresy  and  rebellion. 
It  was  they  who  made  the  success  of  the  "Waldenses,  the 
Albigenses,  the  Humiliati,  and  many  other  sects. 

Thus  Bernardone,  without  dreaming  of  such  a  thing,  be- 
came the  artisan  of  his  son's  religious  vocation.  The  tales 
which  he  brought  home  from  his  travels  seemed  at  first, 
perhaps,  not  to  have  aroused  the  child's  attention,  but  they 
were  like  germs  a  long  time  buried,  which  suddenly,  un- 
der a  warm  ray  of  sunlight,  bring  forth  unlooked-for  fruit. 

The  boy's  education  was  not  carried  very  far  ; 1  the 
school  was  in  those  days  overshadowed  by  the  church. 
Thejpriests  of -Saa  Oiorgio-were  his  teachers/ and  taught 
him  a  little  Latin.  This  language  was  spoken  in  Umbria 
until  toward  the  middle  of  the^HïîHœntrr-eentury  ;  "every 
one  understood  it  and  spoke  it  a  little  ;  it  was  still  the 
language  of  sermons  and  of  political  deliberations.3 

He  learned  also  to  write,  but  with  less  success  ;  all 
through  his  life  we  see  him  take  up  the  pen  only  on  rare 
occasions,  and  for  but  a  few  words.4    The  autograph  of 

1  We  must  not  be  led  astray  by  certain  remarks  upon  his  ignorance, 
from  which  one  might  at  first  conclude  that  he  knew  absolutely  noth- 
ing ;  for  example,  2  Cel..  3,  45  :  Quamris  7iomo  hie  beatus  nullis  fuerU 
8CÎenttœ  studiis  innutritus.  This  evidently  refers  to  science  such  as  the 
Franciscans  soon  came  to  apprehend  it.  and  to  theology  in  particular. 

The  close  of  the  passage  in  Celano  is  itself  an  evident  proof  of  this, 

2  Bon. ,  219  ;  Cf.  A.  SS  ,  p.  560a.    1  Cel. ,  23. 

8  Ozanam,  Documents  inédits  pour  servir  à  VhUioire  littéraire  cV Italie 
(hi  Ville  au  XIITe  siècle.  Paris,  1851,  8vo,  pp.  65,  68,  71,  73.  Fauriel. 
Diinte  et  les  origines  de  la  littérature  italienne.  Paris,  1854,  2  vols., 
8vo.  ii.,  p.  332,  379,  429. 

4  V.  3  Soc,  51  and  67  ;  2  Cel.,  3,  110  ;  Bon.,  55  :  2  Cel.,  3,  99  ;  Eccl., 
6.  Bernard  de  Besse,  Turin  MS.,  fo.  96a,  calls  Brother  Leo  the  sec- 
retary of  St.  Francis. 


0 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Sacro-Convento,  which  appears  to  be  entirely  authentic, 
shows  extreme  awkwardness  ;  in  general  he  dictated, 
signing  his  letters  by  a  simple  r,  the  symbol  of  the  cross 
of  Jesus.1 

That  part  of  his  education  which  was  destined  to  have 
most  influence  upon  his  life  was  the  French  language,2 
which  he  perhaps  spoke  in  his  own  family.  It  has  been 
rightly  said  that  to  know  two  languages  is  to  have  two 
souls  ;  in  learning  that  of  France  the  boy  felt  his  heart 
thrill  to  the  melody  of  its  youthful  poetry,  and  his  imagi- 
nation was  mysteriously  stirred  with  dreams  of  imitating 
the  exploits  of  the  French  cavaliers. 

But  let  us  not  anticipate.  His  early  life  was  tl  x 
other  children  of  his  age.  In  the  quarter  of  the  towr 
where  his  house  is  still  shown  no  vehicles  are  ever  seen  ; 
from  morning  till  night  the  narrow  streets  are  given  over 
to  the  children.  They  play  there  in  many  groups,  frol- 
icking with  an  exquisite  charm,  very  different  from  the 
little  Romans,  who,  from  the  time  they  are  six  or  seven 
years  old,  spend  hours  at  a  time  squatting  behind  a  pillar, 
or  in  a  corner  of  a  wall  or  a  ruin,  to  play  dice  or  "  mor- 
ra,"  putting  a  passionate  ferocity  even  into  their  play. 

In  Umbria,  as  in  Tuscan}7,  children  love  above  all  things 
games  in  which  they  can  make  a  parade  ;  to  play  at  sol- 
diers or  procession  is  the  supreme  delight  of  Assisan 
children.  Through  the  day  they  keep  to  the  narrow 
streets,  but  toward  evening  they  go,  singing  and  dancing, 
to  jjfjfe  of  the  open  squares  of  the  city.  These  squares 
are  one  of  the  charms  of  Àssisi.  Every  few  paces  an 
interval  occurs  between  the  houses  looking  toward  the 
plain,  and  you  find  a  delightful  terrace,  shaded  by  a  few 
trees,  the  very  place  for  enjoying  the  sunset  without 

1  See  page  357,  n.  8.    Bon.,  51  and  308. 

2  1  Cel.,  16  ;  3  Soc,  10;  23  ;  24  ;  33  ;  2  Cel.,  1.  8;  3.  67.  See  also 
the  Testament  of  St.  Clara  and  the  Speculum,  119a. 


YOUTH 


7 


losing  one  of  its  splendors.  Hither  no  doubt  came  often 
the  son  of  Bernardone,  leading  one  of  those  farandoles 
which  you  may -see  there  to  this  day  :  from  his  very  baby- 
hood he  was  a  prince  among  the  children. 

Thomas  of  Celano  draws  an  appalling  picture  of  the 
education  of  that  day.  He  describes  parents  inciting 
their  children  to  vice,  and  driving  them  by  main  force  to 
wrong-doing.  Francis  responded  only  too  quickly  to 
these  unhappy  lessons.1 

His  father's  profession  and  the  possibly  noble  origin 
of  his  mother  raised  him  almost  to  the  level  of  the 
titled  families  of  the  country;  money,  which  he  spent 
with  both  hands,  made  him  welcome  among  them.  Well 
pleased  to  enjoy  themselves  at  his  expense,  the  young- 
nobles  paid  him  a  sort  of  court.  As  to  Bernardone, 
he  was  too  happy  to  see  his  son  associating  with  them 
to  be  niggardly  as  to  the  means.  He  was  miserly,  as 
the  course  of  this  history  will  show,  but  his  pride  and 
self-conceit  exceeded  his  avarice. 

Pica,  his  wife,  gentle  and  modest  creature,2  concerning 
whom  the  biographers  have  been  only  too  laconic,  saw 
all  this,  and  mourned  over  it  in  silence,  but  though  weak 
as  mothers  are,  she  would  not  despair  of  her  son,  and 
when  the  neighbors  told  her  of  Francis's  escapades,  she 
would  calmly  reply,  "  "What  are  you  thinking  about  ?  I 

1  Primum  nam  que  cumfari  tel  baîbutire  incipiunt,  turpia  quœdam  et 
execrabiWt  vdde  signis  et  wcîbus  edocentur  pueriii  nondum  nati:  et  cum 
tempus  ablactationis  adcenerit  quœlamluxu  et  lancina  plena  non  solum 
fari  sed  et  operari  coguntur .  ,  .  .  Sed  et  cum  paulo  pluscv.lum  œtate 
profecerini,  se  ipsis  impellentibus,  semper  ad  détériora  opera  dilabuntur.- 
1  Cel.,  1. 

2  2  Cel.,  1.  Cf.  Conform..  14a,  1.  There  is  nothing  impossible  in  her 
having  been  of  Provencal  origin,  hut  there  is  nothing  to  indicate  it  in 
any  document  worthy  of  credence.  She  was  no  doubt  of  noble  stock, 
for  official  documents  always  give  her  the  title  Domina.  Cristofani  I., 
p.  78  ff.  Cf.  Matrem  honestissimam  fiabuit.  3  Soc,  Edition  of  Pesaro, 
1831,  p.  17. 


8 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


am  very  sure  that,  if  it  pleases  God,  lie  will  become  a  good 
Christian."  1  The  words  were  natural  enough  from  a 
mother's  lips,  but  later  on  they  were  held  to  have  been 
truly  prophetic. 

How  far  did  the  young  man  permit  himself  to  be  led 
on  ?  It  would  be  difficult  to  say.  The  question  which, 
as  we  are  told,  tormented  Brother  Leo,  could  only  have 
suggested  itself  to  a  diseased  imagination.2  Thomas  of 
Celano  and  the  Three  Companions  agree  in  picturing 
him  as  going  to  the  worst  excesses.  Later  biographers 
speak  with  more  circumspection  of  his  worldly  career. 
A  too  widely  credited  story  gathered  from  Celano's 
narrative  was  modified  by  the  chapter-general  of  1260,3 
and  the  frankness  of  the  early  biographers  was,  no 
doubt,  one  of  the  causes  which  most  effectively  con- 
tributed to  their  definitive  condemnation  three  years 
later.4 

Their  statements  are  in  no  sense  obscure  ;  according  to 
them  the  son  of  Bernardone  not  only  patterned  himself 
after  the  young  men  of  his  age,  he  made  it  a  point  of 
honor  to  exceed  them.  What  with  eccentricities,  buffoon- 
eries, pranks,  prodigalities,  he  ended  by  achieving  a  sort  of 
celebrity.  He  was  forever  in  the  streets  with  his  com- 
panions, compelling  attention  by  his  extravagant  or  fan- 
tastic attire.    Even  at  night  the  joyous  company  kept 

1  The  reading  given  by  the  Conform.,  14a,  1,  Meriiorum  gratia  del 
filium  ipsum  noverilis  affuturum,  seems  better  than  that  of  2  Cel.,  1,  1. 
Mvltorum  gratia  Dei  jiliorum  patrem  ipsum  noveritis  affuturum.  Cf. 
3  Soc,  2. 

-  Bernardo  of  Besse,  Turin  MS.,  102b.  :  An  integer  carne  desideram 
.    quod  non  extorsisset  a  Sancto    .    .    .     meruit  obtinere  a  Deo 
quod  virgo  esset.    Cf.  Conform.,  211a,  1,  and  A.  SS.,  p.  560f. 

3  11  In  ilia  antiphona  quœ  incipit  :  Hie  mr  in  vanitatibus  nutritu* 
insolenter,  flat  talis  mutatis  :  Divinis  karismatibus  preventus  est  dé- 
mériter."    Archive  vi.,  p.  35. 

4  Vide  p.  395,  the  decision  of  the  chapter  of  1263  ordaining  the  de- 
struction of  legends  earlier  than  that  of  Bonaventura. 


YOUTH 


9 


up  their  merrymakings,  causing  the  town  to  ring  with 
their  noisy  songs.1 

At  this  very  time  the  troubadours  were  roaming  over 
the  towns  of  Northern  Italy 2  and  bringing  brilliant  fes- 
tivities and  especially  Courts  of  Love  into  vogue.  If 
they  worked  upon  the  passions,  they  also  made  appeal 
to  feelings,  of  courtesy  and  delicacy;  it  was  this  that 
saved  Francis.  In  the  midst  of  his  excesses  he  was 
always  refined  an Cy/consi derate,  carefully  abstaining  from 
every  base  or  indecent  utterance.3  Already  his  chief 
aspiration  Avas  to  rise  above  the  commonplace.  Tortured 
with  the  desire  for  that  which  is  far  off  and  high,4  he  had 
conceived  a  sort  of  passion  for  chivalry,  and  fancying 
that  dissipation  was  one  of  the  distinguishing  features  of 
nobility,  he  had  thrown. himself  into  it  with  all  his  soul. 

But  he  who,  at  twenty,  goes  from  pleasure  to  pleasure 
with  the  heart  not  absolutely  closed  to  good,  must  now 

1  1  Cel.,  1  and  2;  89;  3  Soc,  2.  Cf.  A.  SS.,  560c.  Vincent  of 
Beauvais,  Spec.  hist,  lib.,  29,  cap.  97. 

2  Pierre  Vidal  was  at  the  court  of  Boniface,  Marquis  of  Montferrat, 
about  1195.  and  liked  his  surroundings  so  well  that  he  desired  to  estab- 
lish himself  there.  K.  Bartsch,  Piere  VidaVs  Lieder,  Berlin,  1857,  n. 
41.  Ern.  Monaci,  Testi  anticld  provenzali,  Rome,  1889,  col.  67.  One 
should  read  this  piece  to  have  an  idea  of  the  fervor  with  which  this  poet 
shared  the  hopes  of  Italy  and  desired  its  independence.  This  political 
note  is  found  again  in  a  tenson  of  Manfred  II.  Lancia,  addressed  to 
Pierre  Vidal.  (V.  Monaci,  loc.  cit.,  col.  68.) — Gaucelme  Faidit  was  also 
at  this  court  as  well  as  Raimbaud  of  Yacqueyras  (1180-1207). — Folquet 
de  Romans  passed  nearly  all  his  life  in  Italy.  Bernard  of  Yentadour 
(1145-1195),  Peirol  of  Auvergne  (1180-1220),  and  many  others  abode 
there  a  longer  or  shorter  time.  Very  soon  the  Italians  began  to  sing  in 
Provencal,  among  others  this  Manfred  Lancia,  and  Albert,  Marquis  of 
Malaspina  (1162-1210),  Pietro  della  Caravana,  who  in  1196  stirred  up 
the  Lombard  towns  against  Henry  VI.,  Pietro  della  Mula,  who  about 
1200  was  at  the  court  of  Cortemiglia.  Fragments  from  these  poets  may 
be  found  in  Monaci,  op.  cit.y  col.  69  ff. 

3  3  Soc,  3  ;  2  Cel.,  1,  1. 

4  Cum  met  ghriosus  ammo  et  nollet  aliquem  se  prœcellere,  Giord., 
10. 


10 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FKAXCIS 


and  then,  at  some  turning  of  the  road,  become  aware  that 
there  are  hungry  folk,  who  could  live  a  month  on  what 
he  spends  in  a  few  hours  on  frivolity.  Francis  saw  them, 
and  with  his  impressionable  nature  for  the  moment  forgot 
everything  else.  In  thought  he  J3ut  himself  in  their 
place,  and  it  sometimes  happened  that  he  gave  them  all 
the  money  he  had  about  him  and  even  his  clothes. 

One  day  he  was  busy  with  some  customers  in  his 
father's  shop,  when  a  man  came  in,  begging  for  charity 
in  the  name  of  God.  Losing  his  patience  Francis  sharply 
turned  him  away  ;  but  quickly  reproaching  himself  for 
his  harshness  he  thought,  "  What  would  I  not  have  done 
if  this  man  had  asked  something  of  me  in  the  name  of  a 
count  or  a  baron?  What  ought  I  not  to  have  done  when 
he  came  in  the  name  of  God  ?  I  am  no  better  than  a 
clown  !  "   Leaving  his  customers  he  ran  after  the  beggar.1 

Bernardone  had  been  well  pleased  with  his  son's  com- 
mercial aptitude  in  the  early  days  when  the  }roung  man 
was  first  in  his  father's  employ.  Francis  was  only  too 
proficient  in  spending  money  ;  he  at  least  knew  well  how 
to  make  it.2  But  this  satisfaction  did  not  last  long. 
Francis's  bad  companions  were  exercising  over  him  a 
most  pernicious  influence.  The  time  came  when  he 
could  no  longer  endure  to  be  separated  from  them  ;  if  he 
heard  their  call,  nothing  could  keep  him,  he  would  leave 
everything  and  go  after  them.3 

All  this  time  political  events  were  hurrying  on  in  Um- 
bria  and  Italy  ;  after  a  formidable  struggle  the  allied 
republics  had  forced  the  empire  to  recognize  them.  By 
the  immortal  victory  of  Legnano  (May  29, 1176)  and  the 
Peace  of  Constance  (June  25, 1183)  the  Lombard  League 
had  wrested  from  Frederick  Barbarossa  almost  all  the 

1  1  Cel.,  17;  3  Soc,  3  ;  Bon.,  7.    Cf.  A.  SS.,  p.  562. 

2  1  Cel.,  2  ;  Bon.,  6  ;  Vit.  sec.  apud,  A.  SS.,  p.  560. 
s3  Soc,  9. 


YOUTH 


11 


prerogatives  of  power  ;  little  was  left  to  the  emperor  but 
insignia  and  outward  show. 

From  one  end  of  the  Peninsula  to  the  other  visions 
of  liberty  were  making  hearts  beat  high.  For  an  instant 
it  seemed  as  if  all  Italy  was  about  to  regain  conscious- 
ness of  its  unity,  was  about  to  rise  up  as  one  man  and 
hurl  the  foreigner  from  its  borders  ;  but  the  rivalries  of 
the  cities  were  too  strong  for  them  to  see  that  local  liberty 
without  a  common  independence  is  precarious  and  illu- 
sory. Henry  YL,  the  successor  of  Barbarossa  (1183- 
1196),  laid  Italy  under  a  yoke  of  bon  ;  he  might  perhaps 
in  the  end  have  assured  the  domination  of  the  empire,  if 
his  career  had  not  been  suddenly  cut  short  by  a  prema- 
ture death. 

Yet  he  had  not  been  able  to  put  fetters  upon  ideas. 
The  communal  movement  which  was  shaking  the  north 
of  France  reverberated  beyond  the  Alps. 

Although  a  city  of  second  rank,  Assisi  had  not  been 
behind  in  the  great  struggles  for  independence.1  She 
had  been  severely  chastised,  had  lost  her  franchise,  and 
was  obliged  to  submit  to  Conrad  of  Suabia,  Duke  of  * 
Spoleto,  who  from  the  heights  of  his  fortress  kept  her  in 
subjection. 

But  when  Innocent  III.  ascended  the  pontifical  throne 
(January  8,  1199)  the  old  duke  knew  himself  to  be  lost. 
He  made  a  tender  to  him  of  money.' men,  his  faith  even, 
but  the  pontiff  refused  them  all.  He  had  no  desire  to 
appear  to  favor  the  Tedeschi,  who  had  so  odiously  op- 
pressed the  country.  Conrad  of  Suabia  was  forced  to 
yield  at  mercy,  and  to  go  to  Xarni  to  put  his  submission 
into  the  hands  of  two  cardinals. 

Like  the  practical  folk  that  they  were,  the  Assisans  did 
not  hesitate  an  instant.    Xo  sooner  was  the  count  on 

J  In  1174  Assisi  was  taken  by  the  chancellor  of  the  empire,  Christian, 
Archbishop  of  Mayence.    A.  Cristofani,  i.,  p.  69. 


1 2 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


the  road  to  Nanii  than  they  rushed  to  the  assault  of  the 
castle.  The  arrival  of  envoys  charged  to  take  posses- 
sion of  it  as  a  pontifical  domain  by  no  means  gave  them 
pause.  Not  one  stone  of  it  was  left  upon  another.1  Then, 
with  incredible  rapidity  they  enclosed  their  city  with 
walls,  parts  of  which  are  still  standing,  their  formidable 
ruins  a  witness  to  the  zeal  with  which  the  whole  pop  da- 
tion labored  on  them. 

It  is  natural  to  think  that  Francis,  then  seventeen 
years  old,  was  one  of  the  most  gallant  laborers  of  those 
glorious  days,  and  it  was  perhaps  there  that  he  gained 
the  habit  of  carrying  stones  and  wielding  the  trowel 
which  was  destined  to  serve  him  so  well  a  few  years 
later. 

Unhappily  his  fellow-citizens  had  not  the  sense  to 
profit  by  their  hard -won  liberty.  The  lower  classes, 
who  in  this  revolution  had  become  aware  of  their 
strength,  determined  to  follow  out  the  victory  by  taking- 
possession  of  the  property  of  the  nobles.  The  latter 
took  refuge  in  their  fortified  houses  in  the  interior  of  the 
city,  or  in  their  castles  in  the  suburbs.  The  towns- 
people burned  down  several  of  the  latter,  whereupon 
counts  and  barons  made  request  of  aid  and  succor  from 
the  neighboring  cities. 

Perugia  was  at  this  time  at  the  apogee  of  its  power,2 
and  had  already  made  many  efforts  to  reduce  Assisi  to 
submission.  It  therefore  received  the  fugitives  with 
alacrity,  and  making  their  cause  its  own,  declared  war 
upon  Assisi.    This  was  in  1202.    An  encounter  took 

1  All  these  events  are  related  in  the  G  est  a  Innocenta  111.  ab  audore 
coœtaneo,  edited  by  Baluze  :  Migne,  Inn.  op.,  vol.  i.,  col.  xxiv.  See 
especially  the  letter  of  Innocent,  Kectoribus  Tusciœ  :  Mirari  cogimur,  of 
April  16,  1198.    Migne,  vol.  i.,  col.  75-77.    Potthast,  No.  82. 

2  See  Luigi  Bonazzi.  Storia  di  Perugia,  2  vols.,  8vo.  Perugia,  1875- 
1879,  vol.  i.,  cap.  v.,  pp.  257-322. 


YOUTH* 


13 


place  in  the  plain  about  half  way  between  the  two  cities, 
not  far  from  Ponte  San  Giovanni.  Assisi  was  defeated, 
and  Francis,  who  was  in  the  ranks,  was  made  prisoner.1 
The  treachery  of  the  nobles  had  not  been  universal  ; 
a  few  had  fought  with  the  people.  It  was  with  them 
and  not  with  the  popolani  that  Francis,  in  consideration 
of  the  nobility  of  his  manners,-  passed  the  time  of  his 
captivity,  which  lasted  an  entire  year.  He  greatly  aston- 
shed  his  companions  by  his  lightness  of  heart.  Very 
•ften  they  thought  him  almost  crazy.  Instead  of  pass- 
ing his  time  in  wailing  and  cursing  he  made  plans  for 
the  future,  about  which  he  was  glad  to  talk  to  any  one 
who  came  along.  To  his  fancy  life  was  what  the  songs 
of  the  troubadours  had  painted  it  ;  he  dreamed  of  glori- 
ous adventures,  and  always  ended  by  saying  :  "  You  will 
see  that  one  day  I  shall  be  adored  by  the  whole  world."  3 
During  these  long  months  Francis  must  have  been 
pretty  rudely  undeceived  with  respect  to  those  nobles 
whom  from  afar  he  had  so  heartily  admired.  However 
that  may  be.  he  retained  with  them  not  only  his  frank- 
ness of  speech,  but  also  his  full  freedom  of  action.  One 
of  them,  a  knight,  had  always  held  aloof  from  the  others, 
out  of  vanity  and  bad  temper.  Francis,  far  from  leaving 
him  to  himself,  always  showed  him  affection,  and  finally 
had  the  joy  of  reconciling  him  with  his  fellow-captives. 

A  compromise  was  finally  arrived  at  between  the 
counts  and  the  people  of  Assisi.  In  November,  1203, 
the  arbitrators  designated  by  the  two  parties  announced 
their  decision.  The  commons  of  Assisi  were  to  repair 
in  a  certain  measure  the  damage  done  to  the  lords,  and 
the  latter  agreed,  on  their  part,  to  make  no  further  al- 

1  3  Soc. .  4  ;  2  Cel..  1,  1.  Cristofani,  op.  cit..  i. ,  p.  88  ff.  :  Bonazzi.  op. 
cit..  p.  257. 

2  3  Soc. ,  4. 

3 3  Soc.,  4;  2  Cel..  1,  1. 


14 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANC  I. ^ 


liances  without  autliorization  of  the  commons.1  Rural 
serfage  was  maintained,  which  proves  that  the  revolution 
had  been  directed  by  the  burghers,  and  for  their  own 
profit.  Ten  years  more  were  not,  however,  to  elapse 
before  the  common  people  also  would  succeed  in  achiev- 
ing liberty.  In  this  cause  we  shall  again  see  Francis 
fighting  on  the  side  of  the  oppressed,  earning  the  title 
of  Patriarch  of  religious  democracy  which  has  been  ac- 
corded him  by  one  of  his  compatriots.2 

The  agreement  being  made  the  prisoners  detained  at 
Perugia  were  released,  and  Francis  returned  to  Assisi. 
He  was  twenty-two  years  old. 

1  See  this  arbitration  in  Cristofani,  op.  cit.,  p.  93  ff. 

2  Cristofani,  loc.  cit.,  p.  70. 


CHAPTER-  II 


STAGES  OF  CONVERSION 
Spring  1204  —  Spring  1206 

On  his  return  to  Assisi  Francis  at  once  resumed  his 
former  mode  of  life  ;  perhaps  he  even  tried  in  some  de- 
gree to  make  up  for  lost  time.  Fêtes,  games,  festivals, 
and  dissipations  began  again.  He  did  his  part  in  them 
so  well  that  he  soon  fell  gravely  ill.1  For  long  weeks  he 
looked  death  so  closely  in  the  face  that  the  physical  crisis 
brought  about  a  moral  one.  Thomas  of  Celano  has  pre- 
served for  us  an  incident  of  Francis's  convalescence.  He 
was  regaining  strength  little  by  little  and  had  begun  to 
go  about  the  house,  when  one  day  he -felt  a  desire  to  walk 
abroad,  to  contemplate  nature  quîetîy,  and  so  take  hold 
again  of  life.  Leaning  oh  a  stick  he  bent  his  steps 
toward  the  city  gate._v 

The  nearest  one,  called  Porta  Xuova,  is  the  very  one 
which  opens  upon  the  finest  scenery.  Immediately  on 
passing  through  it  one  finds  one's  self  in  the  open  country  ; 
a  fold  of  the  hill  hides  the  city,  and  cuts  off  every  sound 
that  might  come  from  it.  Before  you  lies  the  winding 
road  to  Foligno  ;  at  the'  left  the  imposing  mass  of  Mount 
Subasio  ;  at  the  right  the  Umbrian  plain  with  its  farms, 
its  villages,  its  cloud-like  hills,  on  whose  slopes  pines, 
cedars,  oaks,  the  vine,  and  the  olive-tree  shed  abroad  an 
incomparable  brightness  and  animation.     The  whole 

1  1  Cel.,  3;  cf.  Bon.,  8.  and  A.  SS.,  p.  563c 


16 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FKAKCIS 


country  sparkles  with  beauty,  a  beauty  harmonious  and 
thoroughly  human,  that  is,  made  to  the  measure  of  man. 

Francis  had  hoped  by  this  sight  to  recover  the  de- 
licious sensations  of  his  youth.  With  the  sharpened 
sensibility  of  the  convalescent  he  breathed  in  the  odors  of 
the  spring-time,  but  spring-time  did  not  come,  as  he  had 
expected,  to  his  heart.  This  smiling  nature  had  for  him 
only  a  message  of  sadness.  He  had  believed  that  the 
breezes  of  this  beloved  country-side  would  carry  away 
the  last  shudders  of  the  fever,  and  instead  he  felt  in  his 
heart  a  discouragement  a  thousand-fold  more  painful 
than  any  physical  ill.  The  miserable  emptiness  of  his 
life  suddenly  appeared  before  him;  he  Avas  terrified  at 
his  solitude,  the  solitude  of  a  great  soul  in  which  there  is 
no  altar. 

Memories  of  the  past  assailed  him  with  intolerable  bit- 
terness ;  he  was  seized  with  a  disgust  of  himself,  his 
former  ambitions  seemed  to  him  ridiculous  or  despicable. 
He  went  home  overwhelmed  with  the  weight  of  a  new 
suffering. 

In  such  hours  of  moral  anguish  man  seeks  a  refuge 
either  in  love  or  in  faith.  Unhappily  the  family  and 
friends  of  Francis  were  incapable  of  understanding  him. 
As  to  religion,  it  was  for  him,  as  for  the  greater  number 
of  his  contemporaries,  that  crass  fetichism  with  Christian 
terminology  which  is  far  from  having  entirely  disap- 
peared. With  certain  men,  in  fact,  piety  consists  in  mak- 
ing one's  self  right  with  a  king  more  powerful  than  any 
other,  but  also  more  severe  and  capricious,  who  is  called 
God.  One  proves  one's  loyalty  to  him  as  to  other 
sovereigns,  by  putting  his  image  more  or  less  everywhere, 
and  punctually  paying  the  imposts  levied  by  his  minis- 
ters. If  you  are  stingy,  if  you  cheat,  you  run  the  risk  of 
being  severely  chastised,  but  there  are  courtiers  around 
the  king  who  willingly  render  services.    For  a  reason- 


STAGES  OF  CONVERSION 


17 


able  recompense  they  will  seize  a  favorable  moment  to 
adroitly  make  away  with  the  sentence  of  your  condem- 
nation or  to  slip  before  the  prince  a  form  of  plenary  ab- 
solution which  in  a  moment  of  good  humor  he  will  sign 
without  looking  at  it.1 

Such  was  the  religious  basis  upon  which  Francis  had 
lived  up  to  this  time.  He  did  not  so  much  as  dream  of 
seeking  the  spiritual  balm  which  he  needed  for  the  heal- 
ing of  his  wounds.  By  a  holy  violence  he  was  to  arrive 
at  last  at  a  pure  and  virile  faith  ;  but  the  road  to  this 
point  is  long,  and  sown  thick  with  obstacles,  and  at  the 
moment  at  which  we  have  arrived  he  had  not  yet  entered 
upon  it,  he  did  not  even  suspect  its  existence  ;  all  he  knew 
was  that  pleasure  leads  to  nothingness,  to  satiety  and 
self -contempt. 

He  knew  this,  and  yet  he  was  about  to  throw  himself 
once  more  into  a  life  of  pleasure.  The  body  is  so  weak, 
so  prone  to  return  to  the  old  paths,  that  it  seeks  them 
of  itself,  the  moment  an  energetic  will  does  not  stop  it. 
Though  no  longer  under  any  illusion  with  respect  to  it, 
Francis  returned  to  his  former  life.  Was  he  trying  to 
divert  his  mind,  to  forget  that  day  of  bitter  thought  ? 
We  might  suppose  so,  seeing  the  ardor  with  which  he 
threw  himself  into  his  new  projects.2 

An  opportunity  offered  itself  for  him  to  realize  his 
dreams  of  glory.  A  knight  of  Assisi,  perhaps  one  of  those 
who  had  been  in  captivity  with  him  at  Perugia,  was  pre- 
paring to  go  to  Apulia  under  orders  from  Count  Gen- 

1  It  is  enough  to  have  lived  in  the  country  of  Xaples  to  know  that 
there  is  nothing  exaggerated  in  this  picture.  I  am  much  surprised 
that  intelligent  and  good  men  fancy  that  to  change  the  religious  for- 
mula of  these  people  would  suffice  to  transform  them.  What  a  mis- 
take !  To-day,  as  in  the  time  of  Jesus,  the  important  matter  is  not  to 
adore  on  Mount  Moriah  or  Mount  Zion,  but  to  adore  in  spirit  and  in 
truth. 

2  1  Cel..  3  and  4. 


IS 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


tile.1  The  latter  was  to  join  Gaultier  do  Brienne,  who  was 
in  the  south  of  Italy  righting  on  the  side  of  Innocent  III. 
Gaultier's  renown  was  immense  all  through  the  Peninsula  ; 
he  was  held  to  be  one  of  the  most  gallant  knights  of  the 
time.  Francis's  heart  bounded  with  joy  ;  it  seemed  to 
him  that  at  the  side  of  such  a  hero  he  should  soon  cover 
himself  with  glory.  His  departure  was  decided  upon,  and 
he  gave  himself  up,  without  reserve,  to  his  joy. 

He  made  his  preparations  with  ostentatious  prodigal- 
ity. His  equipment,  of  a  princely  luxury,  soon  became 
the  universal  subject  of  conversation.  It  was  all  the 
more  talked  about  because  the  chief  of  the  expedition, 
ruined  perhaps  by  the  revolution  of  1202  or  by  the  ex- 
penses of  a  long  captivity,  was  constrained  to  order 
things  much  more  modestly.2  But  with  Francis  kindli- 
ness was  much  stronger  than  love  of  display.  He  gave 
his  sumptuous  clothing  to  a  poor  knight.  The  biogra- 
phies do  not  say  whether  or  not  it  was  to  the  very  one 
whom  he  was  to  accompany.3  To  see  him  running  hither 
and  thither  in  all  the  bustle  of  preparation  one  would 

1  3  Soc  ,  5.  In  the  existing  state  of  the  documents  it  is  impossible  to 
know  whom  this  name  designates,  for  at  that  time  it  was  borne  by  a 
number  of  counts  who  are  only  to  be  distinguished  by  the  names  of 
their  castles.  The  three  following  are  possible  :  1.  Gentile  comes  de 
Campilio,  who  in  1215  paid  homage  for  his  property  to' the  commune  of 
Orvieto  :  Le  antichecronaclie  di  Orvieto,  Arch,  stor.  ital.,5th  series.,  1889, 
iii.,  p.  47.  2.  Gentilis  come*  filitis  Alberid,  who  with  others  had  made 
donation  of  a  monastery  to  the  Bishop  of  Foligno  :  Confirmatory  Bull 
Ineminenti  of  April  10,  1210  :  Ughelli,  Italia  Sacra,  1,  p.  697  ;  Pott- 
hast,  3974.  3.  Gentilis  comes  ManupeUi ;  whom  we  find  in  July,  1200, 
assuring  to  Palermo  the  victory  over  the  troops  sent  by  Innocent  III. 
against Marckwald;  Huillard-Bréholles,  Hist  dipl.A.  p.,  46  ff.  Cf.  Pot- 
thast,  1126.  Gesta  Innocent?'.  Migne,  vol.  i..  xxxii,  ff.  Cf.  Huillard- 
Bréholles.  loc.  cit.,  pages  60,  84.  89.  101.  It  is  wrong  to  consider 
that  Gentile  could  here  be  a  mere  adjective  ;  the  3  Soc.  say  Gentile 
nomine. 

M  Cel..  4;  3  Soc,  5. 

3 3  Soc,  6  ;  2  Cel.,  1,  2  ;  Bon.,  8. 


STAGES  OF  CONVERSION 


19 


have  thought  him  the  son  of  a  great  lord.  His  compan- 
ions were  doubtless  not  slow  to  feel  chafed  by  his  ways 
and  to  promise  themselves  to  make  him  cruelly  expiate 
them.  As  for  him,  he  perceived  nothing  of  the  jealousies 
which  he  was  exciting,  and  night  and  day  he  thought 
only  of  his  future  glory.  In  his  dreams  he  seemed  to 
see  his  parents'  house  completely  transformed.  Instead 
of  bales  of  cloth  he  saw  there  only  gleaming  bucklers 
hanging  on  the  walls,  and  arms  of  all  kinds  as  in  a  seigno- 
rial  castle.  He  saw  himself  there,  beside  a  noble  and 
beautiful  bride,  and  he  never  suspected  that  in  this  vision 
there  was  any  presage  of  the  future  which  was  reserved  for 
him.  Never  had  any  one  seen  him  so  communicative,  so 
radiant  ;  and  when  he  was  asked  for  the  hundredth  time 
whence  came  all  this  joy,  he  would  reply  with  surprising 
assurance  :  "  I  know  that  I  shall  become  a  great  prince."1 

The  day  of  departure  arrived  at  last.  Francis  on 
horseback,  the  little  buckler  of  a  page  on  his  arm,  bade 
adieu  to  his  natal  city  with  joy,  and  with  the  little  troop 
took  the  road  to  Spoleto  which  winds  around  the  base 
of  Mount  Subasio. 

What  happened  next?  The  documents  do  not  say. 
They  confine  themselves  to  reporting  that  that  very  even- 
ing Francis  had  a  vision  which  decided  him  to  return  to 
Assisi.2  Perhaps  it  would  not  be  far  from  the  truth  to 
conjecture  that  once  fairly  on  the  way  the  young  no- 
bles took  their  revenge  on  the  son  of  Bernardone  for  his 
airs  as  of  a  future  prince.  At  twenty  years  one  hardly 
pardons  things  like  these.  If,  as  we  are  often  assured, 
there  is  a  pleasure  unsuspected  by  the  profane  in  getting 
even  with  a  stranger,  it  must  be  an  almost  divine  delight 
to  get  even  with  a  young  coxcomb  upon  whom  one  has 
to  exercise  so  righteous  a  vengeance. 

1  1  Cel..  5  :  3  Soc,  Ô  :  2  Cel.,  1.  2  ;  Bon..  9. 

2  3  Soc.  6;  Bou.:  9  ;  2  Cel.,  1,  2. 


20 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Arriving  at  Spoleto,  Francis  took  to  his  bed.  A  fever 
was  consuming  him  ;  in  a  few  hours  he  had  seen  all  his 
dreams  crumble  away.  The  very  next  day  he  took  the 
road  back  to  Assisi.1 

So  unexpected  a  return  made  a  great  stir  in  the  little 
city,  and  was  a  cruel  blow  to  his  parents.  As  for  him, 
he  doubled  his  charities  to  the  poor,  and  sought  to  keep 
aloof  from  society,  but  his  old  companions  came  flock- 
ing about  him  from  all  quarters,  hoping  to  find  in  him 
once  more  the  tireless  purveyor  of  their  idle  wants.  He 
let  them  have  their  way. 

Nevertheless  a  great  change  had  taken  place  in  him. 
Neither  pleasures  nor  work  could  long  hold  him  ;  he 
spent  a  portion  of  his  days  in  long  country  rambles, 
often  accompanied  by  a  friend  most  different  from  those 
whom  until  now  we  have  seen  about  him.  The  name  of 
this  friend  is  not  known,  but  from  certain  indications  one 
is  inclined  to  believe  that  he  was  Bombarone  da  Bevig- 
lia,  the  future  Brother  Elias.  - 

•3  Soc.  6  ;  2  Cel.,  1,  2. 

2  These  days  are  recalled  by  Celano  with  a  very  particular  precision. 
It  is  very  improbable  that  Francis,  usually  so  reserved  as  to  his  personal 
experience,  should  have  told  him  about  them  (2  Cel.,  3,  68,  and  42,  cf. 
Bon.,  144).  On  the  other  hand,  nothing  forbids  his  having  been  in- 
formed on  this  matter  by  Brother  Elias.  (I  strongly  suspect  the  legend 
which  tells  of  an»  old  man  appearing  on  the  day  Francis  was  born  and 
begging  permission  to  take  the  child  in  his  arms,  saying,  "  To-day,  two 
infants  were  born — this  one,  who  will  be  among  the  best  of  men,  and 
another,  who  will  be  among  the  worst  " — of  having  been  invented  by 
the  zelanti  against  Brother  Elias.  It  is  evident  'that  such  a  story  is 
aimed  at  some  one.  Whom,  if  not  him  who  was  afterward  to  appear 
as  the  Anti-Francis  ?)  We  have  sufficient  details  about  the  eleven  first 
disciples  to  know  that  none  of  them  is  here  in  question.  '  There  is 
nothing  surprising  in  the  fact  that  Elias  does  not  appear  in  the  earliest 
years  of  the  Order  (1209-1212),  because  after  having  practised  at  As- 
sisi his  double  calling  of  schoolmaster  and  carriage  trimmer  (suebat  cult- 
rii8  et  docebat  pverulog  psnlterium  légère,  Salimbene,  p.  402)  he  was 
scriptor  at  Bologna  (Eccl. ,  13).    And  from  the  psychological  point  of 


STAGES  OF  CONVERSION 


21 


Francis  now  went  back  to  his  reflections  at  the  time  of 
his  recovery,  but  with  less  of  bitterness.  His  own  heart 
and  his  friend  agreed  in  saying  to  hirn  that  it  is  possible 
no  longer  to  trust  either  in  pleasure  or  in  glory  and  yet  to 
find  worthy  causes  to  which  to  consecrate  one's  life.  It 
is  at  this  moment  that  religious  thought  seems  to  have 
awaked  in  him.  From  the  moment  that  he  saw  this  new 
way  of  life  his  desire  to  run  in  it  had  all  the  fiery  im- 
petuosity which  he  put  into  all  his  actions.  He  was 
continually  calling  upon  his  friend  and  leading  him  apart 
into  the  most  sequestered  paths. 

But  intense  conflicts  are  indescribable.  We  struggle, 
we  suffer  alone.  It  is  the  nocturnal  wrestling  of  Beth- 
el, mysterious  and  solitary.  The  soul  of  Francis  was 
great  enough  to  endure  this  tragic  duel.  His  friend  had 
marvellously  understood  his  part  in  this  contest.  He 
gave  a  few  rare  counsels,  but  much  of  the  time  he  con- 
tented himself  with  manifesting  his  solicitude  by  follow- 
ing Francis  everywhere  and  never  asking  to  know  more 
than  he  could  tell  him. 

Often  Francis  directed  his  steps  to  a  grotto  in  the 
country  near  Assisi,  which  he  entered  alone.  This  rocky 
cave  concealed  in  the  midst  of  the  olive  trees  became  for 
faithful  Franciscans  that  which  Gethsemane  is  for  Chris- 
tians. Here  Francis  relieved  his  overcharged  heart  by 
heavy  groans.  Sometimes,  seized  with  a  real  horror  for  the 
• 

view  this  hypothesis  would  admirably  explain  the  ascendency  which 
Elias  was  destined  always  to  exercise  over  his  master.  Still  it  remains 
difficult  to  understand  why  Celano  did  not  name  Elias  here,  but  the 
passage,  1  Cel.,  6,  differs  in  the  different  manuscripts  (cf.  A.  SS.  and 
Amoni's  edition,  p.  14)  and  may  have  been  retouched  after  the  latter's 
fall. 

Beviglia  is  a  simple  farm  three-quarters  of  an  hour  northwest  of 
Assisi,  almost  half  way  to  Petrignano.  Half  an  hour  from  Assisi  in 
the  direction  of  Beviglia  is  a  grotto,  which  may  very  well  be  that  of 
which  we  are  about  to  speak. 


22 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


disorders  of  his  youth,  he  would  implore  mercy,  but  the 
greater  part  of  the  time  his  face  was  turned  toward  the 
future;  feverishly  he  sought  for  that  higher  truth  to 
which  he  longed  to  dedicate  himself,  that  pearl  of  great 
price  of  which  the  gospel  speaks:  "Whosoever  seeks, 
finds  ;  he  who  asks,  receives  ;  and  to  him  who  knocks,  it 
shall  be  opened." 

AVhen  he  came  out  after  long  hours  of  seclusion  the 
pallor  of  his  countenance,  the  painful  tension  of  his  feat- 
ures told  plainly  enough  of  the  intensity  of  his  asking 
and  the  violence  of  his  knocks.1 

The  inward  man,  to  borrow-  the  language  of  the  mystics, 
was  not  yet  formed  in  him,  but  it  needed  only  the  oc- 
casion to  bring  about  the  final  break  with  the  past.  The 
occasion  soon  presented  itself. 

His  friends  were  making  continual  efforts  to  induce 
him  to  take  up  his  old  habits  again.  One  day  he  in- 
vited them  all  to  a  sumptuous  banquet.  They  thought 
they  had  conquered,  and  as  in  old  times  they  proclaimed 
him  king  of  the  revels.  The  feast  was  prolonged  far  into 
the  night,  and  at  its  close  the  guests  rushed  out  into  the 
streets,  which  they  filled  with  song  and  uproar.  Sud- 
denly they  perceived  that  Francis  was  no  longer  with 
them.  After  long  searching  they  at  last  discovered  him 
far  behind  them,  still  holding  in  his  hand  his  sceptre  of 
king  of  misrule,  but  plunged  in  so  profound  a  revery 
that  he  seemed  to  be  riveted  to  the  ground  and  uncon- 
scious of  all  that  was  going  on. 

"What  is  the  matter  with  you?"  they  cried,  bustling 
about  him  as  if  to  awaken  him. 

"  Don't  you  see  that  he  is  thinking  of  taking  a  wife  ?  " 
said  one. 

"  Yes,"  answered  Francis,  arousing  himself  and  look- 
ing at  them  with  a  smile  which  they  did  not  recognize, 
1  1  Cel.,  6  ;  2  Cel.,  1,  5  ;  3  Soc,  8,  12  ;  Bon.,  10,  11,  12. 


STAGES  OF  CONVERSION 


23 


"  I  am  thinking  of  taking  a  wife  mure  beautiful,  more 
rich,  more  pure  than  you  could  ever  imagine."  1 

This  reply  marks  a  decisive  stage  in  his  inner  life.  By 
it  he  cut  the  last  links  which  bound  him  to  trivial  pleas- 
ures. It  remains  for  us  to  see  through  what  struggles  he 
was  to  give  himself  to  God,  after  having  torn  himself 
free  from  the  world.  His  .friends,  probably  understood 
nothing  of  all  that  had  taken  place,  but  he  had  become 
aware  of  the  abyss  that  was  opening  between  them  and 
him.    They  soon  accepted  the  situation.  - 

As  for  himself,  no  longer  having  any  reason  for  caution, 
he  gave  himself  up  more  than  ever  to  his  passion  for 
solitude.  If  he  often  wept  over  his  past  dissipations  and 
wondered  how  he  could  have  lived  so  long  without  tasting 
the  bitterness  of  the  dregs  of  the  enchanted  cup,  he  never 
allowed  himself  to  be  overwhelmed  with  vain  regrets. 

The  poor  had  remained  faithful  to  him.  They  gave 
him  an  admiration  of  which  he  knew  himself  to  be  un- 
worthy, yet  which  had  for  him  an  infinite  sweetness.  The 
future  grew  bright  to  him  in  the  light  of  their  gratitude,  of 
the  timid,  trembling  affection  which  they  dared  not  utter 
but  which  his  heart  revealed  to  him  ;  this  worship  which 
he  does  not  deserve  to-day  he  will  deserve  to-morrow,  at 
least  he  promises  himself  to  do  all  he  can  to  deseiwe  it. 

To  understand  these  feelings  one  must  understand  the 
condition  of  the  poor  of  a  place  like  Assisi.  In  an  agri- 
cultural country  poverty  does  not,  as  elsewhere,  almost 
inevitably  involve  moral  destitution,  that  degeneration 
of  the  entire  human  being  which  renders  charity  so  diffi- 
cult. Most  of  the  poor  persons  whom  Francis  knew 
were  in  straits  because  of  war,  of  bad  harvests,  or  of  ill- 
ness. In  such  cases  material  succor  is  but  a  small  part. 
Sympathy  is  the  thing  needed  above  'all.  Francis  had 
treasures  of  it  to  lavish  upon  them. 

1  3  Soc.,  7;  1  Cel..  7;  2  Cel.,  1.  3  ;  3  Soc,  13. 


24  LIFE  OF  ST.  FRAWCIS 

He  Avas  well  requited.  All  sorrows  are  sisters  ;  a 
secret  intelligence  establishes  itself  between  troubled 
hearts,  however  diverse  their  griefs.  The  poor  people 
felt  that  their  friend  also  suffered  ;  they  did  not  precisely 
know  with  what,  but  they  forgot  their  own  sorrows  in 
pitying  their  benefactor.  Suffering  is  the  true  cement  of 
love.  For  men  to  love  each  other  truly,  they  must  have 
shed  tears  together. 

As  yet  no  influence  strictly  ecclesiastic  had  been  felt 
by  Francis.  Doubtless  there  was  in  his  heart  that  leaven 
of  Christian  faith  which  enters  one's  being  without  his 
being  aware  ;  but  the  interior  transformation  which  was 
going  on  in  him  was  as  yet  the  fruit  of  his  own  intuition. 
This  period  was  drawing  to  a  close.  His  thought  was 
soon  to  find  expression,  and  by  that  very  act  to  receive 
the  stamp  of  external  circumstances.  Christian  instruc- 
tion will  give  a  precise  form  to  ideas  of  which  as  yet 
he  has  but  vague  glimpses,  but  he  will  find  in  this  form 
a  frame  in  which  his  thought  will  perhaps  lose  some- 
thing of  its  originality  and  vigor  ;  the  new  wine  will 
be  put  into  old  wine-skins. 

By  degrees  he  was  becoming  calm,  was  finding  in  the 
contemplation  of  nature  joys  which  up  to  this  time  he 
had  sipped  but  hastily,  almost  unconsciously,  and  of  which 
he  was  now  learning  to  relish  the  flavor.  He  drew  from 
them  not  simply  soothing  ;  in  his  heart  he  felt  new  com- 
passions springing  into  life,  and  with  these  the  desire  to 
act,  to  give  himself,  to  cry  aloud  to  these  cities  perched 
upon  the  hill-tops,  threatening  as  warriors  who  eye  one 
another  before  the  fray,  that  they  should  be  reconciled 
and  love  one  another. 

Certainly,  at  this  time  Francis  had  no  glimpse  of  what 
he  was  some  time  to  become  ;  but  these  hours  are  perhaps 
the  most  important  in  the  evolution  of  his  thought  ;  it  is 
to  them  that  his  life  owes  that  air  of  liberty,  that  per- 


STAGES  OF  CONVERSION 


25 


fume  of  the  fields  which  make  it  as  different  from  the 
piety  of  the  sacristy  as  from  that  of  the  drawing-room. 

About  this  time  he  made  a  pilgrimage  to  Roine, 
whether  to  ask  counsel  of  his  friends,  whether  as  a  pen- 
ance imposed  by  his  confessor,  or  from  a  mere  impulse, 
no  one  knows.  Perhaps  he  thought  that  in  a  visit  to  the 
Holy  Apostles,  as  people  said  then,  he  should  find  the  an- 
swers to  all  the  questions  which  he  was  asking  himself. 

At  any  rate  he  went.  It  is  hardly  probable  that  he  re- 
ceived from  the  visit  any  religious  influence,  for  his  biog- 
raphers relate  the  pained  surprise  which  he  experienced 
when  he  saw  in  Saint  Peter's  how  meagre  were  the  offer- 
ings of  pilgrims.  He  wanted  to  give  everything  to  the 
prince  of  the  apostles,  and  emptying  his  purse  he  threw 
its  entire  contents  upon  the  tomb. 

This  journey  was  marked  by  a  more  important  inci- 
dent. Many  a  time  when  succoring  the  poor  he  had 
asked  himself  if  he  himself  was  able  to  endure  poverty  ; 
no  one  knows  the  weight  of  a  burden  until  he  has  carried 
it,  at  least  for  a  moment,  upon  his  own  shoulders.  He 
desired  to  know  what  it  is  like  to  have  nothing,  and  to 
depend  for  bread  upon  the  charity  or  the  caprice  of  the 
passer  by.1 

There  were  swarms  of  beggars  crowding  the  Piazza 
before  the  great  basilica.  He  borrowed  the  rags  of  one 
of  them,  lending  him  his  garment  in  exchange,  and  a 
whole  day  he  stood  there,  fasting,  with  outstretched 
hand.  The  act  was  a  great  victory,  the  triumph  of  com- 
passion over  natural  pride.  Returning  to  Assisi,  he 
doubled  his  kindnesses  to  those  of  whom  he  had  truly  the 
right  to  call  himself  the  brother.  With  such  sentiments 
he  could  not  long  escape  the  influence  of  the  Church. 

On  all  the  roadsides  in  the  environs  of  the  city  there 
were  then,  as  now,  numerous  chapels.  Very  often  he 
!  3  Soc,  8-10;  Bon.,  13,  14;  2  Cel.,  1,  4. 


26 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


must  have  heard  mass  in  these  rustic  sanctuaries,  alone 
with  the  celebrant.  Recognizing  the  tendency  of  simple 
natures  to  bring  home  to  themselves  everything  that 
they  hear,  it  is  easy  to  understand  his  emotion  and 
agitation  when  the  priest,  turning  toward  him,  would 
read  the  gospel  for  the  day.  The  Christian  ideal  was 
revealed  to  him,  bringing  an  answer  to  his  secret 
anxieties.  And  when,  a  few  moments  later,  he  would 
plunge  into  the  forest,  all  his  thoughts  would  be  with 
the  poor  carpenter  of  Nazareth,  who  placed  himself  in 
his  path,  saying  to  him,  even  to  him,  "  Follow  thou  me." 

Nearly  two  years  had  passed  since  the  day  when  he 
felt  the  first  shock  ;  a  life  of  renunciation  appeared  to 
him  as  the  goal  of  his  efforts,  but  he  felt  that  his  spirit- 
ual novitiate  was  not  yet  ended.  He  suddenly  experi- 
enced a  bitter  assurance  of  the  fact. 

He  was  riding  on  horseback  one  day,  his  mind  more 
than  ever  possessed  with  the  desire  to  lead  a  life  of 
absolute  devotion,  when  at  a  turn  of  the  road  he  found 
himself  face  to  face  with  a  leper.  The  frightful  malady 
had  always  inspired  in  him  an  invincible  repulsion.  He 
could  not  control  a  movement  of  horror,  and  by  instinct 
he  turned  his  horse  in  another  direction. 

If  the  shock  had  been  severe,  the  defeat  was  com- 
plete. He  reproached  himself  bitterly.  To  cherish 
such  fine  projects  and  show  himself  so  cowardly  !  Was 
the  knight  of  Christ  then  going  to  give  up  his  arms  ?  He 
retraced  his  steps  and  springing  from  his  horse  he  gave 
to  the  astounded  sufferer  all  the  money  that  he  had  ; 
then  kissed  his  hand  as  he  wrould  have  done  to  a  priest.1 
This  new  victory,  as  he  himself  saw,  marked  an  era  in 
his  spiritual  life.2  ^ 

1  To  this  day  in  the  centre  and  south,  of  Italy  they  kiss  the  hand  of 
priests  and  monks. 

2  See  the  Will.    Cf.  3  Soc,  11  ;  1  Cel.,  17  ;  Bon.,  11  ;  A.  SS.,  p.  566. 


STAGES  OF  CONVERSION 


27 


It  is  far  indeed  from  hatred  of  evil  to  love  of  good. 
Those  are  more  numerous  than  we  think  who,  after  severe 
experience,  have  renounced  what  the  ancient  liturgies  call 
the  world,  with  its  pomps  and  lusts  ;  but  the  greater 
number  of  them  have  not  at  the  bottom  of  their  hearts 
the  smallest  grain  of  pure  love.  In  vulgar  souls  disil- 
lusion leaves  only  a  frightful  egoism. 

This  victory  of  Francis -had  been  so  sudden  that  he 
desired  to  complete  it  ;  a  few  days  later  he  went  to  the 
lazaretto.1  One  can  imagine  the  stupefaction  of  these 
wretches  at  the  entrance  of  the  brilliant  cavalier.  If  in 
our  days  a  visit  to  the  sick  in  our  hospitals  is  a  real 
event  awaited  with  feverish  impatience,  what  must  not 
have  been  the  appearance  of  Francis  among  these  poor 
recluses  ?  One  must  have  seen  sufferers  thus  abandoned, 
to  understand  what  joy  may  be  given  by  an  affectionate 
word,  sometimes  even  a  simple  glance. 

Moved  and  transported,  Francis  felt  his  whole  being 
vibrate  with  unfamiliar  sensations.  For  the  first  time 
he  heard  the  unspeakable  accents  of  a  gratitude  which 
cannot  find  words  burning  enough  to  express  itself,  which 
admires  and  adores  the  benefactor  almost  like  an  angel 
from  heaven. 

1  3  Soc,  11  ;  Bon.,  13. 


CHAPTEK  III 


THE  CHURCH  ABOUT  1209 

St.  Francis  was  inspired  as  much  as  any  man  may  be, 
but  it  would  be  a  palpable  error  to  study  him  apart  from 
his  age  and  from  the  conditions  in  which  he  lived. 

We  know  that  he  desired  and  believed  his  life  to  be 
an  imitation  of  Jesus,  but  what  we  know  about  the  Christ 
is  in  fact  so  little,  that  St.  Francis's  life  loses  none  of  its 
strangeness  for  that.  His  conviction  that  he  was  but  an 
imitator  preserved  him  from  all  temptation  to  pride,  and 
enabled  him  to  proclaim  his  views  with  incomparable 
vigor,  without  seeming  in  the  least  to  be  preaching  him- 
self. 

We  must  therefore  neither  isolate  him  from  external 
influences  nor  show  him  too  dependent  on  them.  During 
the  period  of  his  life  at  which  we  are  now  arrived,  1205- 
1206,  the  religious  situation  of  Italy  must  more  than  at 
any  other  time  have  influenced  his  thought  and  urged 
him  into  the  path  which  he  finally  entered. 

The  morals  of  the  clergy  were  as  corrupt  as  ever,  ren- 
dering any  serious  reform  impossible.  If  some  among 
the  heresies  of  the  time  were  pure  and  without  reproach, 
many  were  trivial  and  impure.  Here  and  there  a  few 
voices  were  raised  in  protest,  but  the  prophesyings  of 
Gioacchino  di  Fiore  had  no  more  power  than  those  of  St. 
Hildegarde  to  put  a  stop  to  wickedness.  Luke  Wadding, 
the  pious  Franciscan  annalist,  begins  his  chronicle  with 


THE  CTIUKCH  ABOUT  1209 


29 


tliis  appalling  picture.  The  adyance  in  historic  research 
permits  us  to  retouch  it  somewhat  more  in  detail,  but 
the  conclusion  remains  the  same  ;  without  Francis  of 
Assisi  the  Church  would  perhaps  haye  foundered  and  the 
Cathari  would  haye  won  the  day.  The  little  poor  man, 
driven  away,  cast  out  of  doors  by  the  creatures  of  Inno- 
cent III.,  sayed  Christianity. 

We  cannot  here  make  a  thorough  study  of  the  state 
of  the  Church  at  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury ;  it  will  suffice  to  trace  some  of  its  most  prominent 
features. 

The  first  glance  at  the  secular  clergy  brings  out  into 
startling  prominence  the  ravages  of  simony  ;  the  traffic 
in  ecclesiastical  places  was  carried  on  with  boundless 
audacity  ;  benefices  were  put  up  to  the  highest  bidder, 
and  Innocent  III.  admitted  that  fire  and  sword  alone 
could  heal  this  plague.1  Prelates  who  declined  to  be 
bought  by  propince,  fees,,  were  held  up  as  astounding 
exceptions  Î 2 

"  They  are  stones  for  understanding,"  it  was  said  of  the 
officers  of  the  Roman  curio,  "  wood  for  justice,  fire  for 
wrath,  iron  for  forgiveness  ;  deceitful  as  foxes,  proud  as 
bulls,  greedy  and  insatiate  as  the  minotaur." 3  The  praises 
showered  upon  Pope  Eugenius  III.  for  rebuffing  a  priest 
who,  at  the  beginning  of  a  lawsuit,  offered  him  a  golden 
mark,  speak  only  too  plainly  as  to  the  morals  of  Eome  in 
this  respect.4 

The  bishops,  on  their  part,  found  a  thousand  methods, 
often  most  out  of  keeping  with  their  calling,  for  extorting 

1  Bull  of  June  8,  1198,  Quamvis.    Migne,  i..  col.  220  ;  Pottliast,  265. 

2  For  example,  Pierre,  Cardinal  of  St.  Chryzogone  and  former  Bishop 
of  3Ieaux,  vrho  in  a  single  election  refused  the  dazzling  offer  of  fire 
hundred  silver  marks.    Alexander  III.,  Migne's  edition,  epist.  395. 

3  Fasciculus  rerum  expetend.  et  fugiend.,  t.  ii..  7,  pp.  254,  255  (Brown, 
1690). 

4  John  of  Salisbury,  Policr^t.    Migne.  v.  15. 


30 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


money  from  the  simple  priests.1  Violent,  quarrelsome, 
contentious,  they  were  held  up  to  ridicule  in  popular 
ballads  from  one  end  of  Europe  to  the  other.2  As  to  ' 
the  priests,  they  bent  all  their  powers  to  accumulate  bene- 
fices, and  secure  inheritances  from  the  dying,  stooping 
to  the  most  despicable  measures  for  providing  for  their 
bastards/5 

The  monastic  orders  were  hardly  more  reputable.  A 
great  number  of  these  had  sprung  up  in  the  eleventh  and 
twelfth  centuries  ;  their  reputation  for  sanctity  soon 
stimulated  the  liberality  of  the  faithful,  and  thus  fatally 
brought  about  their  own  decadence.  Few  communities 
had  shown  the  discretion  of  the  first  monks  of  the  Order 
of  Grammont  in  the  diocese  of  Limoges.  When  Stephen 
de  Muret,  its  founder,  began  to  manifest  his  sanctity  by 
giving  sight  to  a  blind  man,  his  disciples  took  alarm  at 
the  thought  of  the  wealth  and  notoriety  which  was  likely 
to  come  to  them  from  this  cause.  Pierre  of  Limoges,  who 
had  succeeded  Stephen  as  prior,  went  at  once  to  his 
tomb,  praying  : 

1  Among  their  sources  of  revenue  we  find  the  right  of  coUagium.  by  pay-  # 
ment  of  which  clerics  acquired  the  right  to  keep  a  concubine.    Pierre  Lo 
Chantre,  Verb,  abbrev.,  24. 

2  Vide  Carmina  Burana,  Breslau,  8vo,  1883  ;  Political  Songs  of  Eng- 
land, published  by  Th.  Wright,  London,  8vo,  1893  ;  Poésies  populaires 
latines  du  moyen  âge,  du  Méril,  Paris,  1847.  See  also  Raynouard,  Lexique 
roman,  i.,  440,  451,  464,  the  fine  poems  of  the  troubadour  Pierre  Car- 
dinal, contemporary  of  St.  Francis,  upon  the  woes  of  the  Church,  and 
Dante.  Inferno,  xix.  If  one  would  gain  an  idea  of  what  the  bishop  of 
a  small  city  in  those  days  cost  his  flock,  he  has  only  to  read  the  bull  of 
February  12.  1219,  Justis  petentium,  addressed  by  Honorius  III.  to  the 
Bishop  of  Terni,  and  including  the  contract  by  which  the  inhabitants  of 
that  city  settled  the  revenues  of  the  episcopal  see.  Horoy,  t.  iii.,  col. 
114,  or  the  Bullarium  romanum,  t.  iii.,  p.  348.  Turin. 

3  Conosco  sacerdoti  chef  anno  gli  tmira  per  for  mare  un  patrimonio  da 
lasciare  ai  loro  spurii ;  altri  die  tengono  osteria  colV  insegni  del  cottare  e 
vendono  nno  .  .  .  Salimbene,  Cantarelli,  Parma,  1882,  2  vols.,8vo. 
ii..  p.  307. 


THE  CHUKCH  ABOUT  1209 


31 


;  O  servant  of  God,  thou  hast  shown  us  the  way  of  poverty,  and 
behold,  thou  wouldst  make  us  leave  the  strait  and  difficult  path  of 
salvation,  and  wouldst  set  us  in  the  broad  road  of  eternal  death.  Thou 
hast  preached  to  us  (the  virtues  of)  solitude,  and  thou  art  about  to  chauge 
this  place  into  a  fair  and  a  market-place.  We  know  well  that  thou  art 
a  saint  !  Thou  hast  no  need  to  prove  it  to  us  by  performing  miracles 
which  will  destroy  our  humility.  Be  not  so  zealous  for  thy  reputation 
as  to  augment  it  to  the  injury  of  our  salvation.  This  is  what  we  ask  of 
thee,  expecting  it  of  thy  love.  If  not,  we  declare  unto  thee  by  the  obe- 
dience which  we  once  owed  to  thee,  we  will  unearth  thy  bones  and  throw 
them  into  the  river.  " 

Stephen  obeyed  up  to  the  time  of  his  canonization 
(1189),  but  from  that  time  forward  ambition,  avarice,  and 
luxury  made  such  inroads  upon  the  solitude  of  Grain  - 
mont  that  its  monks  became  the  byword  and  scoff  of  the 
Christian  world.1 

Pierre  of  Limoges  was  not  entirely  without  reason  in 
fearing  that  his  monastery  would  be  transformed  into  a 
fair-ground  ;  members  of  the  chapters  of  most  of  the  ca- 
thedrals kept  wine-shops  literally  under  their  shadows, 
and  certain  monasteries  did  not  hesitate  to  attract 
custom  by  jugglers  of  all  kinds  and  even  by  cour- 
tesans.2 

To  form  an  idea  of  the  degradation  of  the  greater 
number  of  the  monks  it  is  not  enough  to  read  the  ora- 
torical and  often  exaggerated  reproofs  of  preachers 
obliged  to  strike  hard  in  order  to  produce  an  effect. 
We  must  run  through  the  collection  of  bulls,  where 
appeals  to  the  court  of  Rome  against  assassinations, 

1  Vide  Brens  Mstoria  Prior.  Grandimont. — Stephani  T'rnacensis. 
Epist,  115,  152,  153.  156.  162  :  Honorius  III.,  Horoy's  edition,  lib.  i., 
280,  284,  286-288  ;  ii.,  12,  130,  136.  383-387. 

2  Gu§rard,  Gartidaire  de  3^.  D.  de  Paris,  t.  i. ,  p.  cxi  ;  t.  ii. ,  p.  406. 
Cf.  Honorius  III.,  Bull  Liter  statuta  of  July  25.  1223,  Horoy,  t,  iv., 
col.  401.  See  also  canon  23  of  the  Council  of  Beziers,  1233  ;  Guibert  de 
Gemblours,  epist.  5  and  6  (Migne)  ;  Honorius  III.,  lib  ix.,  32,  81;  ii., 
193  :  iv.,  10  ;  iii  .  253  and  258;  iv..  33,  27,  70,  144  ;  v.,  56,  291,  420, 
430  ;  vi..  214,  132.  139,  204  :  vii  ,  127  :  ix..  51. 


32 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


violations,  incests,  adulteries,  recur  on  almost  every  page. 
It  is  easy  to  see  that  even  an  Innocent  III.  might  feel 
himself  helpless  and  tempted  to  yield  to  discouragement, 
in  the  face  of  so  many  ills.1 

The  best  spirits  were  turning  toward  the  Orient,  ask- 
ing themselves  if  perchance  the  Greek  Church  might 
not  suddenly  come  forward  to  purify  all  these  abuses, 
and  receive  for  herself  the  inheritance  of  her  sister.' 

The  clergy,  though  no  longer  respected,  still  overawed 
the  people  through  their  superstitious  terror  of  their 
power.  Here  and  there  might  have  been  perceived 
many  a  forewarning  of  direful  revolts  ;  the  roads  to 
Rome  were  crowded  with  monks  hastening  to  claim  the 
protection  of  the  Holy  See  against  the  people  among 
whom  they  lived.  The  Pope  would  promptly  declare 
an  interdict,  but  it  was  not  to  oe  expected  that  such  a 
resource  would  avail  forever.3 

To  maintain  the  privileges  of  the  Church,  the  papacy 
wTas  often  obliged  to  spread  the  mantle  of  its  protection 
over  those  who  deserved  it  least.  Its  clients  were  not 
always  as  interesting  as  the  unfortunate  Ingelburge.  It 
would  be  easier  to  give  unreserved  admiration  to  the 
conduct  of  Innocent  III.  if  in  this  matter  one  could  feel 
certain  that  his  only  interest  was  to  maintain  the  cause 
of  a  poor  abandoned  woman^  But  it  is  only  too  evident 
that  he  desired  above  all  to  keep  up  the  ecclesiastical 

1  Vide  Bull  Postquam  tocante  Domino  of  July  11,  1206.  Pottliast 
2840. 

2  V.  Annales  Stadenses  [Monumenta  GermaniœMstorica,  Scriptorum,  t. 
16],  ad  aim.  1237.  Among  the  comprehensive  pictures  of  the  situation 
of  the  Church  in  the  thirteenth  century,  there  is  none  more  interesting 
than  that  left  us  by  the  Cardinal  Jacques  de  Vitry  in  his  Historia  occi- 
dentalis :  Libri  duo  quorum  prior  Orientalis,  alter  Occidentalis  Mstorim 
nomine  inscribitur* Duaci,  1597.  16mo.  pp.  259-480. 

3  V.  Honorius  III.,  Horoy's  edition,  lib.  i.,  ep.  109,  125,  135,  206,  273  ; 
ii..  128,  164  ;  iv.,  120,  etc. 


THE  CHURCH  ABOUT  1209 


83 


immunities.  This  is  very  evident  in  his  intervention  in 
favor  of  Waldemar,  Bishop  of  Schleswig. 

Yet  we  must  not  assume  that  all  was  corrupt  in  the 
bosom  of  the  Church  ;  then,  as  always,  the  evil  made 
more  noise  than  the  good,  and  the  voices  of  those  who 
desired  a  reformation 'aroused  only  passing  interest. 

Among  the  populace  there  was  superstition  unimagi- 
nable ;  the  pulpit,  which  ought  to  have  shed  abroad  some 
little  light,  was  as  yet  open  only  to  the  bishops,  and  the 
few  pastors  who  did  not  neglect  their  duty  in  this  regard 
accomplished  very  little,  being  too  much  absorbed  in  other 
duties.  It  was  the  birth  of  the  mendicant  orders  which 
obliged  the  entire  body  of  secular  clergy  to  take  up  the 
practice  of  preaching. 

Public  worship,  reduced  to  liturgical  ceremonies,  no 
longer  preserved  anything  which  appealed  to  the  intelli- 
gence ;  it  was  more  and  more  becoming  a  sort  of  self- 
acting  magic  formula.  Once  upon  this  road,  the  absurd 
was  not  far  distant.  Those  who  deemed  themselves  pious 
told  of  miracles  performed  by  relics  with  no  need  of  aid 
from  the  moral  act  of  faith. 

In  one  case  a  parrot,  being  carried  away  by  a  kite, 
uttered  the  invocation  dear  to  his  mistress,  "Sancte 
Thoma  adjuva  rne"  and  was  miraculously  rescued.  In 
another,  a  merchant  of  Groningen.  having  purloined  an 
arm  of  St.  John  the  Baptist,  grew  rich  as  if  by  enchant- 
ment so  long  as  he  kept  it  concealed  in  his  house,  but 
was  reduced  to  beggary  so  soon  as,  his  secret  being  dis- 
covered, the  relic  was  taken  away  from  him  and  placed 
in  a  church.1 

These  stories,  we  must  observe,  do  not  come  from  igno- 

1  Dîalogv.s  miraculorum  of  Cesar  of  Heisterbach  [Strange's  edition, 
Cologne,  1851,  2  vols..  8vo],  t.  ii..  pp.  255  and  125.   This  book,  with  the 
G-olden  Legend  of  Giacomo  di  Yaraggio,  gives  the  best  idea  of  the  state 
of  religious  thought  in  the  thirteenth  century. 
3 


34 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FKANCIS 


rant  enthusiasts,  hidden  away  in  obscure  country  places  ; 
they  are  given  us  by  one  of  the  most  learned  monks  of 
his  time,  who  relates  them  to  a  novice  by  way  of  forming 
his  mind  ! 

Relics,  then,  were  held  to  be  neither  more  nor  less  than 
talismans.  Not  alone  did  they  perform  miracles  upon 
those  who  were  in  no  special  state  of  faith  or  devotion, 
the  more  potent  among  them  healed  the  sick  in  spite  of 
themselves.  A  chronicler  relates  that  the  body  of  Saint 
Martin  of  Tours  had  in  887  been  secretly  transported  to 
some  remote  hiding  place  for  fear  of  the  Danish  invasion. 
When  the  time  came  for  bringing  it  home  again,  there 
were  in  Touraine  two  impotent  men  who,  thanks  to  their 
infirmity,  gained  large  sums  by  begging.  They  were 
thrown  into  great  terror  by  the  tidings  that  the  relics 
were  being  brought  back  :  Saint  Martin  would  certainly 
heal  them  and  take  away  their  means  of  livelihood. 
Their  fears  were  only  too  well  founded.  They  had  taken 
to  flight,  ]^ut  being  too  lame  to  walk  fast  they  had  not  yet 
crossed  the  frontier  of  Touraine  when  the  saint  arrived 
and  healed  them  ! 

Hundreds  of  similar  stories  might  be  collected,  statis- 
tics might  be  made  up  to  show,  at  the  accession  of  Inno- 
cent III.,  the  greater  number  of  episcopal  thrones  occu- 
pied by  unworthy  bishops,  the  religious  houses  peopled 
with  idle  and  debauched  monks  ;  but  would  this  give  a 
truly  accurate  picture  of  the  Church  at  this  epoch  ?  I  do 
not  think  so.  In  the  first  place,  we  must  reckon  with  the 
choice  spirits,  who  were  without  doubt  more  numerous  than 
is  generally  supposed.  Five  righteous  men  would  have 
saved  Sodom  ;  the  Almighty  did  not  find  them  there,  but 
he  perhaps  might  have  found  them  had  He  Himself  made 
search  for  them  instead  of  trusting  to  Lot.  The  Church 
of  the  thirteenth  century  had  them,  and  it  was  for  their 
sakes  that  the  whirlwind  of  heresy  did  not  sweep  it  away. 


THE  CHURCH  ABOUT  1209 


35 


But  this  is  not  all  :  the  Church  of  that  time  offered  a 
noble  spectacle  of  moral  grandeur.  "We  must  learn  to  lift 
our  eyes  from  the  wretched  state  of  things  which  has  just 
been  pointed  out  and  fix  them  on  the  pontifical  throne 
and  recognize  the  beauty  of  the  struggle  there  going  on  : 
a  power  wholly  spiritual  undertaking  to  command  the 
rulers  of  the  world,  as  the  soul  masters  the  body,  and  tri- 
umphing in  the  end.  It  is  true  that  both  soldiers  and 
generals  of  this  army  were  often  little  better  than  ruffians, 
but  here  again,  in  order  to  be  just,  we  must  understand 
the  end  they  aimed  at. 

In  that  iron  age,  when  brute  force  was  the  only  force, 
the  Church,  notwithstanding  its  wounds,  offered  to  the 
world  the  spectacle  of  peasants  and  laboring  men  receiv- 
ing the  humble  homage  of  the  highest  potentates  "  of 
earth,  simply  because,  seated  on  the  throne  of  Saint  Peter, 
they  represented  the  moral  law.  This  is  why  Alighieri 
and  many  others  before  and  after  him,  though  they 
might  heap  curses  on  wicked  ministers,  yet  in  the  depths 
of  their  heart  were  never  without  an  immense  com- 
passion and  an  ardent  love  for  the  Church  which  they 
never  ceased  to  call  their  mother. 

Still,  everybody  was  not  like  them,  and  the  vices  of 
the  clergy  explain  the  innumerable  heresies  of  that  day. 
All  of  them  had  a  certain  success,  from  those  which  were 
simply  the  outcry  of  an  outraged  conscience,  like  that  of 
the  Waldenses,  to  the  most  absurd  of  them  all,  like  that 
of  Eon  de  l'Étoile.  Some  of  these  movements  were  for 
great  and  sacred  causes  ;  but  we  must  not  let  our  sym- 
pathies be  so  moved  by  the  persecutions  suffered  by 
heretics  as  to  cloud  our  judgment.  It  would  have  been 
better  had  Rome  triumphed  by  gentleness,  by  education 
and  holiness,  but  unhappily  a  soldier  may  not  always 
choose  his  weapons,  and  when  life  is  at  stake  he  seizes 
the  first  he  finds  within  his  reach.     The  papacy  has  not 


36 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


always  been  reactionary  and  obscurantist  ;  when  it  over- 
threw the  Cathari,  for  example,  its  victory  was  that  of 
reason  and  good  sense. 

The  list  of  the  heresies  of  the  thirteenth  century  is 
already  long,  but  it  is  increasing  every  day,  to  the  great 
joy  of  those  erudite  ones  who  are  making  strenuous 
efforts  to  classify  everything  in  that  tohu-bolm  of  mys- 
ticism and  folly.  In  that  day  heresy  was  very  much 
alive  ;  it  was  consequently  very  complex  and  its  powers 
of  transformation  inhnite.  One  may  indicate  its  currents, 
mark  its  direction,  but  to  go  farther  is  to  condemn  one- 
self to  utter  confusion  in  this  medley  of  impulsive,  pas- 
sionate, fantastic  movements  which  were  born,  shot  up- 
ward, and  fell  to  earth  again,  at  the  caprice  of  a  thousand 
incomprehensible  circumstances.  Iu  certain  counties 
of  England  there  are  at  the  present  day  villages  having 
as  many  as  eight  and  ten  places  of  worship  for  a  few 
hundreds  of  inhabitants.  Many  of  these  people  change 
their  denomination  every  three  or  four  years,  returning 
to  that  they  first  quitted,  leaving  it  again  only  to  enter  it 
anew,  and  so  on  as  long  as  they  live.  Their  leaders  set 
the  example,  throwing  themselves  enthusiastically  into 
each  new  movement  only  to  leave  it  before  long.  They 
would  all  alike  find  it  difficult  to  give  an  intelligible 
reason  for  these  changes.  They  say  that  the  Spirit 
guides  them,  and  it  would  be  unfair  to  disbelieve  them, 
but  the  historian  who  should  investigate  conditions  like 
these  would  lose  his  head  in  the  labyrinth  unless  he 
made  a  separate  study  of  each  of  these  Protean  move- 
ments.   They  are  surely  not  worth  the  trouble. 

In  a  somewhat  similar  condition  was  a  great  part  of 
Christendom  under  Innocent  III.  ;  but  while  the  sects  of 
which  I  have  just  spoken  move  in  a  very  narrow  circle 
of  dogmas  and  ideas,  in  the  thirteenth  century  every  sort 
of  excess  followed  in  rapid  succession.     Without  the 


THE  CHURCH  ABOUT  1309 


37 


slightest  pause  of  transition  men  passed  through  the 
most  contradictor}'  systems  of  belief.  Still,  a  few  general 
characteristics  may  be  observed  ;  in  the  first  place, 
heresies  are  no  longer  metaphysical  subtleties  as  in 
earlier  days  ;  Arias  and  Priscillian,  Xestorius  and  Euty- 
chus  are  dead  indeed.  In  the  second  place,  they  no 
longer  arise  in  the  upper  and  governing  class,  but  pro- 
ceed especially  from  the  inferior  clergy  and  the  common 
people.  The  blows  which  actually  threatened  the  Church 
of  the  Middle  Ages  were  struck  by  obscure  laboring 
men,  by  the  poor  and  the  oppressed,  who  in  their 
wretchedness  and  degradation  felt  that  she  had  failed  in 
her  mission. 

No  sooner  was  a  voice  uplifted,  preaching  -  austerity 
and  simplicity,  than  it  drew  together  not  the  laity  only, 
but  members  of  the  clergy  as  well.  Toward  the  close 
of  the  twelfth  century  we  find  a  certain  Pons  rousing  all 
Perigord,  preaching  evangelical  poverty  before  the  com- 
ing of  St.  Francis.1 

Two  great  currents  are  apparent  :  on  one  side  the 
Cathari,  on  the  other,  innumerable  sects  revolting  from 
the  Church  by  very  fidelity  to  Christianity  and  the  desire 
to  return  to  the  primitive  Church. 

Among  the  sects  of  the  second  category  the  close  of 
the  twelfth  century  saw  in  Italy  the  rise  of  the  Poor  Men, 
who  without  doubt  were  a  part  of  the  movement  of 
Arnold  of  Brescia  ;  they  denied  the  efficacy  of  sacra- 
ments administered  by  unworthy  hands.2 

A  true  attempt  at  reform  was  made  by  the  Waldenses. 
Their  history,  although  better  known,  still  remains  ob- 
scure on  certain  sides  ;  their  name,  Poor  Men  of  Lyons, 
recalls  the  former  movement,  with  which  they  were  in 

1  Recueil  des  historiens  de  France.    Bouquet,  t.  xii.,  pp.  550,  551. 
2Bonacorsi:  Yitœ  hœretiœrum  [d'Acherj,  SpicUegium,  t.  i..  p.  215]. 
Cf.  Lucius  III.,  epist.  171,  Migne. 


LIKE  OF  ST.  FKANCIS 


close  agreement,  as  also  with  the  Humiliants.  All  these 
names  involuntarily  suggest  that  by  which  St.  Francis 
afterward  called  his  Order.  The  analogy  between  the 
inspiration  of  Peter  Waldo  and  that  of  St.  Francis 
was  so  close  that  one  might  be  tempted  to  believe 
the  latter  a  sort  of  imitation  of  the  former.  It  would 
be  a  mistake  :  the  same  causes  produced  in  all  quarters 
the  same  effects  ;  ideas  of  reform,  of  a  return  to 
gospel  poverty,  were  in  the  air,  and  this  helps  us  to  un- 
derstand how  it  Avas  that  before  many  years  the  Francis- 
can preaching  reverberated  through  the  entire  world.  If 
at  the  outset  the  careers  of  these  two  men  were  alike, 
their  later  lives  were  very  different.  Waldo,  driven 
into  heresy  almost  in  spite  of  himself,  was  obliged  to 
accept  the  consequences  of  the  premises  which  he  him- 
self had  laid  down  ; 1  while  Francis,  remaining  the  obe- 
dient son  of  the  Church,  bent  all  his  efforts  to  develop 
the  inner  life  in  himself  and  his  disciples.  It  is  indeed 
most  likely  that  through  his  father  Francis  had  become 
acquainted  with  the  movement  of  the  Poor  Men  of  Lyons. 
Hence  his  oft-repeated  counsels  to  his  friars  of  the  duty 
of  submission  to  the  clergy.  When  he  went  to  seek  the 
approbation  of  Innocent  III.,  it  is  evident  that  the  prel- 
ates with  whom  he  had  relations  warned  him,  by  the 
very  example  of  Waldo,  of  the  dangers  inherent  in  his 
own  movement.2 

The  latter  had  gone  to  Rome  in  1179,  accompanied  by 
a  few  followers,  to  ask  at  the  same  time  the  approbation 
of  their  translation  of  the  Scriptures  into  the  vulgar 

1  Vide  Bernard  Gui,  Praciica  inquisition's.  Douai  edition,  4to,  Paris, 
1886  p.  244  ff.,  and  especially  the  Vatican  MS.,  2548,  folio  71. 

2  A  chronicle  of  St.  Francis's  time  makes  this  same  comparison  :  Bur- 
chard,  Abbot  of  Urspurg  1226)  [Burchardiet  Guonradi  chronicon.  Mo- 
num.  Germ.  hist.  Script  ,  t.  23],  has  left  us  an  account  of  the  approba- 
tion of  Francis  by  the  Pope,  all  the  more  precious  for  being  that  of  a 
contemporary.     Loc.  et.,  p.  376. 


THE  CHURCH  ABOUT  1209 


39 


tongue  and  the  permission  to  preach.  They  were  granted 
both  requests  on  condition  of  gaining  for  their  preaching 
the  authorization  of  their  local  clergy.  Walter  Map 
(-1-1210),  who  was  charged  with  their  examination,  was 
constrained,  while  ridiculing  their  simplicity,  to  admire 
their  poverty  and  zeal  for  the  apostolic  life.1  Two  or 
three  years  later  they  met  a  very  different  reception  at 
Rome,  and  in  1184  they  were  anathematized  by  the  Coun- 
cil of  Verona.  From  that  day  nothing  could  stop  them, 
even  to  the  forming  of  a  new  Church.  They  multiplied 
with  a  rapidity  hardly  exceeded  afterward  by  the  Fran- 
ciscans. By  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century  we  find  them 
spread  abroad  from  Hungary  to  Spain  ;  the  first  attempts 
to  hunt  them  down  were  made  in  the  latter  country. 
Other  countries  were  at  first  satisfied  with  treating  them 
as  excommunicated  persons. 

Obliged  to  hide  themselves,  reduced  to  the  impossi- 
bility of  holding  their  chapters,  which  ought  to  have 
come  together  once  or  twice  a  year,  and  which,  had  they 
done  so,  might  have  maintained  among  them  a  certain 
unity  of  doctrine,  the  TTaldenses  rapidly  underwent  a 
change  according  to  their  environment  ;  some  obstinately 
insisting  upon  calling  themselves  good  Catholics,  others 
going  so  far  as  to  preach  the  overthrow  of  the  hierarchy 
and  the  uselessness  of  sacraments.2  Hence  that  mul- 
tiplicity of  differing  and  even  hostile  branches  which 
seemed  to  develop  almost  hourly. 

A  common  persecution  brought  them  nearer  to  the 

1  De  nugis  Curialium,  Dist.  1.  cap.  81.  p.  64.  Wright's  edition.  Cf. 
Chronique  de  Laon,  Bouquet  xiii..  p.  680. 

2  See,  for  example,  the  letter  of  the  Italian  branch  of  the  Poor  Men  of 
Lyons  [Pauperos  Lombardt]  to  their  brethren  of  Germany,  there  called 
Leonistes.  In  it  they  show  the  points  in  which  they  are  not  in  har- 
mony with  the  French  Waldenses.  Published  by  Preger  :  Abhand- 
Inngen  dtr  K.  bayer.  Akademie  der  Wiss.  Hist.  CI.,  t.  xiii.,  1875,  p. 
19  ff. 


40 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Cathari  and  favored  the  fusion  of  their  ideas.  Their 
activity  was  inconceivable.  Under  pretext  of  pilgrimages 
to  Rome  they  were  always  on  the  road,  simple  and  insin- 
uating. The  methods  of  travel  of  that  day  were  pecul- 
iarly favorable  to  the  diffusion  of  ideas.  While  retailing 
news  to  those  whose  hospitality  they  received,  they  would 
speak  of  the  unhappy  state  of  the  Church  and  the 
reforms  that  were  needed.  Such  conversations  were  a 
means  of  apostleship  much  more  efficacious  than  those 
of  the  present  day,  the  book  and  the  newspaper  ;  there 
is  nothing  like  the  viva  vox 1  for  spreading  thought. 

Many  vile  stories  have  been  told  of  the  Waldenses  ; 
calumny  is  far  too  facile  a  weapon  not  to  tempt  an 
adversary  at  bay.  Thus  they  have  been  charged  with 
the  same  indecent  promiscuities  of  which  the  early  Chris- 
tians were  accused.  In  reality  their  true  strength  was  in 
their  virtues,  which  strongly  contrasted  with  the  vices  of 
the  clergy. 

The  most  powerful  and  determined  enemies  of  the 
Church  were  the  Cathari.  Sincere,  audacious,  often 
learned  and  keen  in  argument,  having  among  them  some 
choice  spirits  and  men  of  great  intellectual  powers,  they 
were  pre-eminently  the  heretics  of  the  thirteenth  century. 
Their  revolt  did  not  bear  upon  points  of  detail  and  ques- 
tions of  discipline,  like  that  of  the  early  Waldenses  ;  it  had 
a  definite  doctrinal  basis,  taking  issue  with  the  whole  body 
of  Catholic  dogma.  But,  although  this  heresy  nourished 
in  Italy  and  under  the  very  eyes  of  St.  Francis,  there  is 

1  These  continual  journeyings  sometimes  gained  for  them  the  name 
of  Passafjieni,  as  in  the  south  of  France  the  preachers  of  certain  sects 
are  to-day  called  Courriers.  The  terra,  however,  specially  designates 
a  Judaizing  sect  who  returned  to  the  literal  observation  of  the  Mo.-aic 
law  :  Dôliinger,  Beitràge,  t.  ii.,  pp.  327  and  375.  They  should  therefore 
be  identified  with  the  GirconMsi  of  the  constitution  of  Frederic  II. 
(Huillard  Bréholles,  t.  v.,  p.  280).  See  especially  the  fine  monograph 
of  M.  C.  Mplinier  :  Mémoires  de  V Académie  de  Toulouse,  1888. 


THE  CHURCH  ABOUT  1209 


41 


need  only  to  indicate  it  briefly.  His  work  may  have 
received  many  infiltrations  from  the  Waldensian  move- 
ment, but  Catharism  was  wholly  foreign  to  it. 

This  is  naturally  explained  by  the  fact  that  St.  Francis 
never  consented  to  occupy  himself  with  questions  of  doc- 
trine. For  him  faith  was  not  of  the  intellectual  but  the 
moral  domain  ;  it  is  the  consecration  of  the  heart.  Time 
spent  in  dogmatizing  appeared  to  him  time  lost. 

An  incident  in  the  life  of  Brother  Egidio  well  brings 
out  the  slight  esteem  in  which  theology  was  held  by  the 
early  Brothers  Minor.  One  day,  in  the  presence  of  St. 
Bonaventura,  he  cried,  perhaps  not  without  a  touch  of 
irony,  "Alas!  what  shall  we  ignorant  and  simple  ones 
do  to  merit  the  favor  of  God  ?  "  "  My  brother,"  replied 
the  famous  divine,  "  you  know  very  well  that  it  suffices 
to  love  the  Lord."  "  Are  you  very  sure  of  that  ?  "  replied 
Egidio  ;  "  do  you  believe  that  a  simple  woman  might 
please  Him  as  well  as  a  master  in  theology  ?  "  Upon  the 
affirmative  response  of  his  interlocutor,  he  ran  out  into  the 
street  and  calling  to  a  beggar  woman  with  all  his  might, 
"Poor  old  creature,"  he  exclaimed,  "rejoice,  for  if  you 
love  God,  you  may  have  a  higher  place  in  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  than  Brother  Bonaventura  !"  1 

The  Cathari,  then,  had  no  direct  influence  upon  St. 
Francis,2  but  nothing  could  better  prove  the  disturbance 

1  A.  SS.,  Aprilis,  t.  iii.,  p.  238d. 

-  I  would  say  that  between  the  inspiration  of  Francis  and  the  Catha- 
rian  doctrines  there  is  an  irreconcilable  opposition  ;  but  it  would  not  be 
difficult  to  find  acts  and  words  of  his  which  recall  the  contempt  for  mat- 
ter of  the  Cathari  ;  for  example,  his  way  of  treating  his  body.  Some 
of  his  counsels  to  the  friars  :  Unmquisque  liabet  in  potestate  sua  inimi- 
cum  suum  videlicit  corpus,  per  quod  peccat.  Assisi  MS.  338,  folio  20b. 
Conform.  138,  b.  2.  —  Cum  majorem  inimicum  corpore  non  habeam. 
2  Cel. ,  3,  63.  These  are  momentary  but  inevitable  obscurations,  moments 
of  forgetfulness,  of  discouragement,  when  a  man  is  not  himself,  and 
repeats  mechanically  what  he  hears  said  around  him.  The  real  St. 
Francis  is,  on  the  contrary,  the  lover  of  nature,  he  who  sees  in  the 


42 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


of  thought  at  this  epoch  than  that  resurrection  of  Mani- 
cheism.  To  what  a  depth  of  lassitude  and  folly  must 
religious  Italy  have  fallen  for  this  mixture  of  Buddhism, 
Mazdeism,  and  gnosticism  to  have  taken  such  hold  upon 
it  !  The  Catharist  doctrine  rested  upon  the  antago- 
nism of  two  principles,  one  bad,  the  other  good.  The 
first  had  created  matter;  the  second,  the  soul,  which,  for 
generation  after  generation  passes  from  one  body  to 
another  until  it  achieves  salvation.  Matter  is  the  cause 
and  the  seat  of  evil  ;  all  contact  with  it  constitutes  a 
blemish,1  consequently  the  Cathari  renounced  marriage 
and  property  and  advocated  suicide.  All  this  was  mixed 
up  with  most  complicated  cosmogonical  myths. 

Their  adherents  were  divided  into  two  classes — the 
pure  or  perfect,  and  the  believers,  who  were  proselytes 
in  the  second  degree,  and  whose  obligations  were  very 
simple.  The  adepts,  properly  so  called,  were  initiated 
by  the  ceremony  of  the  consolamentum  or  imposition  of 
hands,  which  induced  the  descent  upon  them  of  the  Con- 
soling Spirit.  Among  them  were  enthusiasts  who  after 
this  ceremony  placed  themselves  in  endura — that  is  to  say, 
they  starved  themselves  to  death  in  order  not  to  descend 
from  this  state  of  grace. 

In  Languedoc,  where  this  sect  went  by  the  name  of 
Albigenses,  they  had  an  organization  which  embraced 
all  Central  Europe,  and  everywhere  supported  flourish- 
ing schools  attended  by  the  children  of  the  nobles.  In 
Italy  they  were  hardly  less  powerful  ;  Concorrezo,  near 

whole  creation  the  work  of  divine  goodness,  the  radiance  of  the  eternal 
beauty,  he  who,  in  the  Canticle  of  the  Creatures,  sees  in  the  body  not 
the  Enemy  but  a  brother  :  Cœpit  liilariter  loqui  ad  corpus;  Gaude,frater 
corpus.    2  Cel.,  3,  137. 

1  Quodam  die,  dicta  fabrissa  dixit  ipsi  testi  prœgnanti,  quod  rogaret 
Deum,  ut  liberaret  earn  a  Dœmone,  quern  Jiabebat  in  ventre  .  .  . 
Gulielmus  dixit  quod  ita  magnum  peccatum  erat  jacere  cum  nxore  sua 
quam  cum  concubina.    Dollinger,  loc.  cit.,  pp.  24,  35. 


THE  CHURCH  ABOUT  1209 


43 


Monza  in  Lombardy,  and  Bagnolo,  gave  their  names  to 
two  congregations  slightly  different  from  those  in  Lan- 
guedoc.1 

But  it  was  especially  from  Milan2  that  they  spread 
abroad  over  all  the  Peninsula,  making  proselytes  even  in 
the  most  remote  districts  of  Calabria.  The  state  of  anar- 
chy prevailing  in  the  country  was  very  favorable  to  them. 
The  papacy  was  too  much  occupied  in  baffling  the  spas- 
modic efforts  of  the  Hohenstaufen,  to  put  the  necessary 
perseverance  and  system  into  its  struggles  against  here- 
sy. Thus  the  new  ideas  were  preached  under  the  very 
shadow  of  the  Lateran  ;  in  1209,  Otho  IV.,  coming  to 
Rome  to  be  crowned,  found  there  a  school  in  which  Mani- 
cheism  was  publicly  taught.3 

With  all  his  energy  Innocent  III.  had  not  been  able 
to  check  this  evil  in  the  States  of  the  Church.  The  case 
of  Yiterbo  tells  much  of  the  difficulty  of  repressing  it  ;  in 
March,  1199,  the  pope  wrote  to  the  clergy  and  people  of 
this  town  to  recall  to  their  minds,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  increase,  the  penalties  pronounced  against  heresy. 
For  all  that,  the  Patarini  had  the  majority  in  1205,  and 
succeeded  in  naming  one  of  themselves  consul.4 

1  Those  of  the  Concorrezemes  and  Bfjolertses .  In  Italy  Cnthnri  be- 
comes Gazznri  ;  for  that  matter,  each  country  had  its  special  appella- 
tives ;  one  of  the  most  general  in  the  north  was  that  of  the  Bulgrtri, 
which  marks  the  oriental  origin  of  the  sect,  whence  the  slang  term 
Boulgres  and  its  derivatives  (vide  Matthew  Paris,  ann.  1238).  Cf. 
Schmit,  Histoire  des  Gath'ires,  8vo.  2  vols  Paris,  1849. 

2  The  most  current  name  in  Italy  was  that  of  the  Patarini,  given  them 
no  doubt  from  their  inhabiting  the  quarter  of  second-hand  dealers  in 
Milan  :  la  contrada  dei  Palai'i,  found  in  many  cities.  PataH!  is  still 
the  cry  of  the  ragpickers  in  the  small  towns  of  Provence.  In  the  thir- 
teenth century  Patarino  and  Catharo  were  synonyms.  But  before  that 
the  term  Patarini  had  an  entirely  different  sense.  See  the  very  remark- 
able study  of  M.  Felice  Tocco  on  this  subject  in  his  Eresia  nel  medio  evo, 
12mo,  Florence,  1884. 

3  Cesar  von  Heisterbach,  Dial,  mirac,  t.  i..  p.  309,  Strange's  edition. 
*  Iniiocentii  opera,  Migne,  t.  i..  col.  537;  t.  ii.  .  654. 


44 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


The  wrath  of  the  pontiff  at  this  event  was  unbounded  ; 
he  fulminated  a  bull  menacing  the  city  with  fire  and 
sword,  and  commanding  the  neighboring  towns  to  throw 
themselves  upon  her  if  within  a  fortnight  she  had  not 
given  satisfaction.1  It  was  all  in  vain  :  the  Patarini  were  j 
dealt  with  only  as  a  matter  of  form  ;  it  needed  the  pres- 
ence of  the  pope  himself  to  assure  the  execution  of  his 
orders  and  obtain  the  demolition  of  the  houses  of  the 
heretics  and  their  abettors  (autumn  of  1207). 2 

But  stifled  at  one  point  the  revolt  burst  out  at  a  hun- 
dred others  ;  at  this  moment  it  was  triumphant  on  all 
sides  ;  at  Ferrara,  Verona,  Rimini,  Florence,  Prato, 
Faenza,  Treviso,  Piacenza.  The  clergy  were  expelled 
from  this  last  town,  which  remained  more  than  three 
years  without  a  priest.3 

Viterbo  is  twenty  leagues  from  Assisi,  Orvieto  only 
ten,  and  disturbances  in  this  town  were  equally  grave.  A 
noble  Roman,  Pietro  Parentio,  the  deputy  of  the  Holy 
See  in  this  place,  endeavored  to  exterminate  the  Patarini. 
He  was  assassinated.4 

But  Francis  needed  not  to  go  even  so  far  as  Orvieto  to 
become  acquainted  with  heretics.  In  Assisi  the  same 
things  were  going  on  as  in  the  neighboring  cities.  In 
1203  this  town  had  elected  for  podestà  a  heretic  named 
Giraklo  di  Gilberto,  and  in  spite  of  warnings  from  Rome 
had  persisted  in  keeping  him  at  the  head  of  affairs  until 
the  expiration  of  his  term  of  office  (1204).  Innocent  III., 
who  had  not  yet  been  obliged  to  use  vigor  with  Viterbo, 

1  Gomputruistis  in  peccatis  sicut  jumenta  in  stercore  suo  ut  fumus  oc 
fimus  pvtrefactionis  vestrœ  jam  fere  circumadjacentes  re<jiords  infecerit,  ac  \ 
ipsum  Dominium  ut  credimus  ad  nauseam  provocaverit.  Loc.  cit.,  col. 
654.   Cf.  673  ;  Potthast,  2532,  2539. 

-  Oesta  Innocenta,  Migne,  t.  i.,  col.  clxii.   Cf.  epist.  viii.,  85  and  105. 

3  Campi,  Historia  Ecclesiastic  a  di  Piacenza,  parte  ii.,  p.  92  ff.  Cf.  In- 
noc,  epist.  ix.,  131,  166-169  ;  x.,  54,  64,  222. 

4  A.  SS.,  Maii,  t.  v.,  p.  87. 


THE  CHURCH  ABOUT  1209 


45 


resorted  to  persuasion  and  despatched  to  Umbria  the  Car- 
dinal Leo  di  Santa  Croce,  who  will  appear  more  than 
once  in  this  history.1  The  successor  of  Giraldo  and  fifty 
of  the  principal  citizens  made  the  amende  honorable  and 
swore  fidelity  to  the  Church. 

It  is  easy  to  perceive  in  what  a  state  of  ferment  Italy 
was  during  these  early  years  of  the  thirteenth  century. 
The  moral  discredit  of  the  clergy  must  have  been  deep 
indeed  for  souls  to  have  turned  toward  Manicheism  with 
such  ardor. 

Italy  may  well  be  grateful  to  St.  Francis  ;  it  was  as 
much  infected  with  Catharism  as  Languedoc,  and  it  was 
he  who  wrought  its  purification.  He  did  not  pause 
to  demonstrate  by  syllogisms,  or  theological  theses  the 
vanity  of  the  Catharist  doctrines  ;  but  soaring  as  on 
wings  to  the  religious  life,  he  suddenly  made  a  new  ideal 
to  shine  out  before  the  eyes  of  his  contemporaries,  an 
ideal  before  which  all  these  fantastic  sects  vanished 
as  birds  of  the  night  take  flight  at  the  first  rays  of  the 
sun. 

A  great  part  of  St.  Francis's  power  came  to  him  thus 
through  his  systematic  avoidance  of  polemics.  The 
latter  is  always  more  or  less  a  form  of  spiritual  pride  ; 
it  only  deepens  the  chasm  which  it  undertakes  to  fill 
up.  Truth  needs  not  to  be  proved  ;  it  is  its  own 
witness. 

The  only  weapon  which  he  would  use  against  the 
wicked  was  the  holiness  of  a  life  so  full  of  love  as  to 
enlighten  and  revive  those  about  him,  and  compel  them 

1  Bull  of  June  6.  1205.  Potthast,  2237  ;  Migne,  vii.,  83.  This  Cardinal 
Leo  (of  the  presbyterial  title  of  Holy  Cross  of  Jerusalem)  was  one 
most  valued  by  Innocent  III.  To  him  and  Ugolini,  the  future  Gregory 
IX.,  lie  at  this  epoch  confided  the  most  delicate  missions  (for  example, 
in  1209  T  they  were  named  legates  to  Otho  IV.).  This  embassy  shows 
in  what  importance  the  pope  held  the  affairs  of  Assisi,  though  it  was  a 
very  small  city. 


46 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


to  love.1  The  disappearance  of  Catharism  in  Italy,  with- 
out an  upheaval,  and  above  all  without  the  Inquisition, 
is  thus  an  indirect  result  of  the  Franciscan  movement, 
and  not  the  least  important  among  them.2 

At  the  voice  "of  the  Umbrian  reformer  Italy  roused 
herself,  recovered  her  good  sense  and  fine  temper  ;  she 
cast  out  those  doctrines  of  pessimism  and  death,  as  a  ro- 
bust organism  casts  out  morbid  substances. 

I  have  already  endeavored  to  show  the  strong  analogy 
between  the  initial  efforts  of  Francis  and  those  of  the 
Poor  Men  of  Lyons.  His  thought  ripened  in  an  atmos- 
phere thoroughly  saturated  with  their  ideas  ;  uncon- 
sciously to  himself  they  entered  into  his  being. 

The  prophecies  of  the  Calabrian  abbot  exerted  upon 
him  an  influence  quite  as  difficult  to  appreciate,  but  no 
less  profound. 

Standing  on  the  confines  of  Italy  and  as  it  were  at  the 
threshold  of  Greece,  Gioacchino  di  Fiore  3  was  the  last 
link  in  a  chain  of  monastic  prophets,  who  during  nearly 
four  hundred  years  succeeded  one  another  in  the  monas- 
teries and  hermitages  of  Southern  Italy.  The  most 
famous  among  them  had  been  St.  Nilo,  a  sort  of  untamed 
John  the  Baptist,  living  in  desert  places,  but  suddenly 
emerging  from  them  when  his  duties  of  maintaining  the 
right  called  him  elsewhere.  We  see  him  on  one  oc- 
casion appearing  in  Rome  itself,  to  announce  to  pope  and 
emperor  the  unloosing  of  the  divine  wrath.4 

1  Not  once  do  we  find  him  fighting  heretics.  The  early  Dominicans,  on 
the  contrary,  are  incessantly  occupied  with  arguing.    See  2  Cel.,  3,  46. 

2  It  need  not  he  said  that  I  do  not  assert  that  no  trace  of  it  is  to  he 
found  after  the  ministry  of  St.  Francis,  but  it  was  no  longer  a  force, 
and  no  longer  endangered  the  very  existence  of  the  Church. 

3  This  strange  personality  will  charm  historians  and  philosophers  for 
a  long  while  to  come.  I  know  nothing  more  learned  or  more  luminous 
than  M.  Felice  Tocco's  fine  study  in  his  Eresia  nel  medio  evo,  Florence, 
1884,  1  vol.,  12mo,  pp.  261-409. 

4  A  SS.,  Sept.,  t.  vii.,  p.  283  ff. 


THE  CHURCH  ABOUT  1209 


47 


Scattered  in  the  Alpine  solitudes  of  Basilicata  these 
Caiabrian  hermits  were  continually  obliged  to  retreat 
higher  and  higher  into  the  mountain  fastnesses  to 
escape  the  populace,  who,  pursued  by  pirates,  were 
taking  refuge  in  these  mountains.  They  thus  passed 
their  lives  between  heaven  and  earth,  with  two  seas 
for  their  horizon.  Disquieted  by  fear  of  the  corsairs, 
and  by  the  war-cries  whose  echoes  reached  even  to  them, 
they  turned  their  thoughts  toward  the  future.  The  ages 
of  great  terror  are  also  the  ages  of  great  hope  ;  it  is  to 
the  captivity  of  Babylon  that  we  owe,  with  the  second 
part  of  Isaiah,  those  pictures  of  the  future  which  have 
not  yet  ceased  to  charm  the  soul  of  man  ;  Kero's  per- 
secutions gave  us  the  Apocalypse  of  St.  John,  and  the 
paroxysms  of  the  twelfth  century  the  eternal  Gospel. 

Converted  after  a  life  of  dissipation,  Gioacchino  di 
Fiore  travelled  extensively  in  the  Holy  Land,  Greece,  and 
Constantinople.  Returning  to  Italy  he  began,  though  a 
layman,  to  preach  in  the  outskirts  of  Bende  and  Cosen- 
za.  Later  on  he  joined  the  Cistercians  of  Cortale,  near 
Catanzaro,  and  there  took  vows.  Shortly  after  elected 
abbot  of  the  monastery  in  spite  of  refusal  and  even 
flight,  he  was  seized  after  a  few  years  with  the  nostalgia 
of  solitude,  and  sought  from  Pope  Lucius  III.  a  dis- 
charge from  his  functions  (1181),  that  he  might  conse- 
crate all  his  time  to  the  works  which  he  had  in  mind. 
The  pope  granted  his  request,  and  even  permitted  him  to 
go  wherever  he  might  deem  best  in  the  interest  of  his 
work.  Then  began  for  Gioacchino  a  life  of  wandering 
from  convent  to  convent,  which  carried  him  even  as  far 
as  Lombardy,  to  Terona,  where  we  find  him  with  Pope 
Urban  III. 

When  he  returned  to  the  south,  a  group  of  disciples 
gathered  around  him  to  hear  his  explanations  of  the  most 
obscure  passages  of  the  Bible.    "Whether  he  would  or  no 


48 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


lie  was  obliged  to  receive  tliem,  to  talk  with  them,  to  give 
them  a  rule,  and,  finally,  to  instal  thein  in  the  very  heart 
of  the  Sila,  the  Black  Forest  of  Italy,1  over  against  the 
highest  peak,  in  gorges  where  the  silence  is  interrupted 
only  by  the  murmurs  of  the  Arvo  and  the  Neto,  which 
have  their  source  not  far  from  there.  The  new  Athos 
received  the  name  of  Fiore  (flower),  transparent  symbol 
of  the  hopes  of  its  founder.2  It  was  there  that  he  put 
the  finishing  touch  to  writings  which,  after  fifty  years  of 
neglect,  were  to  become  the  starting-poiut  of  all  heresies, 
and  the  aliment  of  all  souls  burdened  with  the  salvation 
of  Christendom.  The  men  of  the  first  half  of  the  thir- 
teenth century,  too  much  occupied  with  other  things,  did 
not  perceive  that  the  spiritual  streams  at  which  they  were 
drinking  descended  from  the  snowy  mountain-tops  of 
Calabria. 

It  is  always  thus  with  mj'stical  influences.  There  is  in . 
them  something  vague,  tenuous,  and  penetrating  which 
escapes  an  exact  estimation.  Let  two  choice  souls  meet, 
and  they  will  find  it  a  difficult  thing  to  analyze  and  name 
the  impressions  which  each  has  received  from  the  other. 
It  is  so  with  an  epoch  ;  it  is  not  always  those  who  speak  to 
her  the  of  tenest  and  loudest  whom  she  best  understands  ; 
nor  even  those  at  whose  feet  she  sits,  a  faithful  pupil, 
day  after  day.  Sometimes,  while  on  the  way  to  her  accus- 
tomed masters,  she  suddenly  meets  a  stranger  ;  she  bare- 
ly catches  a  fewr  words  of  what  he  says  ;  she  knows  not 
whence  he  comes  nor  whither  he  goes  ;  she  never  sees 
him  again,  but  those  few  words  of  his  go  on  surging  in 
the  depths  of  her  soul,  agitating  and  disquieting  her. 

1  A.  SS.,Maii,  vii.  ;  Vincent  de  Beauvais,  Speculum  historicité,  lib.  29, 
cap.  40.  La  Sila  is  a  wooded  mountain,  situated  eastward  from  Cosenza, 
winch  the  peasants  call  Monte  Nero.  The  summits  are  nearly  2,000 
metres  above  the  sea. 

2  Toward  1195.    Gioacchino  died  there,  March  30,  1202. 


THE  CHURCH  ABOUT  1209 


49 


Thus  it  was  for  a  long  while  with  Gioacchino  di  Fiore. 
His  teachings,  scattered  here  and  there  by  enthusiastic 
disciples,  were  germinating  silently  in  many  hearts.1 
Giving  back  hope  to  men,  they  restored  to  them  strength 
also.  To  think  is  already  to  act  ;  alone  under  the 
shadow  of  the  hoary  pines  which  surrounded  his  cell, 
the  cenobite  of  Fiore  was  laboring  for  the  renovation  of 
the  Church  with  as  much  vigor  as  the  reformers  who 
came  after  him. 

He  was,  however,  far  from  attaining  the  height  of  the 
prophets  of  Israel  ;  instead  of  soaring  like  them  to  the 
very  heavens,  he  always  remained  riveted  to  the  text, 
upon  which  he  commented  in  the  allegorical  method,  and 
whence  by  this  method  he  brought  out  the  most  fantastic 
improbabilities.  A  few  pages  of  his  books  would  wear 
out  the  most  patient  reader,  but  in  these  fields,  burnt  over 
by  theological  arguments  more  drying  than  the  winds  of 
the  desert,  fields  where  one  at  first  perceives  only  stones 
and  thistles,  one  comes  at  last  to  the  charming  oasis,  with 
repose  and  dreams  in  its  shade. 

The  exegesis  of  Gioacchino  di  Fiore  in  fact  led  up  to  a 
sort  of  philosophy  of  history  ;  its  grand  lines  were  calcu- 
lated to  make  a  striking  appeal  to  the  imagination.  The 
life  of  humanity  is  divided  into  three  periods  :  in  the 
first,  under  the  reign  of  the  Father,  men  lived  under  the 
rigor  of  the  law  ;  in  the  second,  reigned  over  by  the  Son, 

1  A  whole  apochryphal  literature  lias  blossomed  out  around  Gioaccliino  ; 
certain  hypercritics  have  tried  to  prove  that  he  never  wrote  anything. 
These  are  exaggerations.  Three  large  works  are  certainly  authentic  : 
TJie  Agreement  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments.  The  Commentary  on  the 
Apocalypse,  and  The  Psaltery  of  Ten  Strings,  published  in  Venice,  the  first 
in  1517,  the  two  others  in  1527.  His  prophecies  were  so  well  known, 
even  in  his  lifetime,  that  an  English  Cistercian,  Rudolph,  Abbot  of 
Coggeshall  (»J*1228),  coming  to  Rome  in  1195,  sought  a  conference  with 
him  and  has  left  us  an  interesting  account  of  it.  Martène,  Amplissima 
Collect™,  t.  v..  p.  839. 
4 


50 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


men  live  under  the  rule  of  grace  ;  in  the  third,  the 
Spirit  shall  reign  and  men  shall  live  in  the  plenitude  of 
love.  The  first  is  the  period  of  servile  obedience  ;  the 
second,  that  of  filial  obedience  ;  the  third,  that  of  liberty. 
In  the  first,  men  lived  in  fear  ;  in  the  second,  they  rest 
in  faith  ;  in  the  third,  they  shall  burn  with  love.  The 
first  saw  the  shining  of  the  stars  ;  the  second  sees  the 
whitening  of  the  dawn  ;  the  third  will  behold  the  glory 
of  the  day.  The  first  produced  nettles,  the  second  gives 
roses,  the  third  will  be  the  age  of  lilies. 

If  dow  we  consider  that  in  the  thought  of  Gioacchino 
the  third  period,  the  Age  of  the  Spirit,  was  about  to  open, 
we  shall  understand  with  what  enthusiasm  men  hailed 
the  words  which  restored  joy  to  hearts  still  disturbed 
with  millenarian  fears. 

It  is  evident  that  St.  Francis  knew  these  radiant  hopes. 
Who  knows  even  that  it  was  not  the  Calabrian  Seer 
who  awoke  his  heart  to  its  transports  of  love  ?  If  this 
be  so,  Gioacchino  was  not  merely  his  precursor  ;  he  was 
his  true  spiritual  father.  However  this  may  be,  St. 
Francis  found  in  Gioacchino's  thought  many  of  the  ele- 
ments which,  unconsciously  to  himself,  were  to  become 
the  foundation  of  his  institute. 

The  noble  disdain  \vhich  he  showTs  for  all  men  of 
learning,  and  which  he  sought  to  inculcate  upon  his 
Order,  was  for  Gioacchino  one  of  the  characteristics  of  the 
new  era.  "  The  truth  which  remains  hidden  to  the  wise," 
he  says,  "  is  revealed  to  babes  ;  dialectics  closes  that 
which  is  open,  obscures  that  which  is  clear  ;  it  is  the 
mother  of  useless  talk,  of  rivalries  and  blasphemy. 
Learning  does  not  edify,  and  it  may  destroy,  as  is  proved 
by  the  scribes  of  the  Church,  swollen  with  pride  and 
arrogance,  who  by  dint  of  reasoning  fall  into  heresy.1 

We  have  seen  that  the  return  to  evangelical  simplicity 
1  Comm.  in  opoc,  folio  78.  b,  2. 


THE  CHURCH  ABOUT  1209 


51 


had  become  a  necessity  ;  all  the  heretical  sects  were  on 
this  point  in  accord  with  pious  Catholics,  but  no  one 
spoke  in  a  manner  so  Franciscan  as  Gioacchino  di  Fiore. 
Not  only  did  he  make  voluntary  poverty  one  of  the 
characteristics  of  the  age  of  lilies,  but  he  speaks  of  it  in 
his  pages  with  so  profound,  so  living  an  emotion,  that 
St.  Francis  could  do  little  more  than  repeat  his  words. 
The  ideal  monk  whom  he  describes,1  whose  only  property 
is  a  lyre,  is  a  true  Franciscan  before  the  letter,  him  of 
whom  the  Poverello  of  Assisi  always  dreamed. 

The  feeling  for  nature  also  bursts  forth  in  him  with  in- 
comparable vigor.  One  day  he  was  preaching  in  a  chapel 
which  was  plunged  in  almost  total  darkness,  the  sky  be- 
ing quite  overcast  with  clouds.  Suddenly  the  clouds 
broke  away,  the  sun  shone,  the  church  was  flooded  with 
light.  Gioacchino  paused,  saluted  the  sun,  intoned  the 
Veni  Creator,  and  led  his  congregation  out  to  gaze  upon 
the  landscape. 

It  would  be  by  no  means  surprising  if  toward  1205 
Francis  should  have  heard  of  this  prophet,  toward  whom 
so  many  hearts  were  turning,  this  anchorite  who,  gazing 
up  into  heaven,  spoke  with  Jesus  as  a  friend  talks  with 
his  friend,  yet  knew  also  how  to  come  down  to  console 
men  and  warm  the  faces  of  the  dying  at  his  oavu  breast. 

At  the  other  end  of  Europe,  in  the  heart  of  Germany, 
the  same  causes  had  produced  the  same  effects.  From 
the  excess  of  the  people's  sufferings  and  the  despair  of 
religious  souls  was  being  born  a  movement  of  apocalyp- 
tic mysticism  which  seemed  to  have  secret  communica- 
tion with  that  which  was  rousing  the  Peninsula.  They 
had  the  same  views  of  the  future,  the  same  anxious  ex- 
pectation of  new  cataclysms,  joined  with  a  prospect  of  a 
reviving  of  the  Church. 

1  Qui  rere  monachus  est  nihil  reputed  esse  swum  ?usi  citharam:  Apoc, 
ib.,  folio  183,  a  2. 


52 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


"  Cry  with  a  loud  voice,"  said  lier  guardian  angel  to 
St.  Elizabeth  of  Schonau  (-1-  1164),  "  cry  to  all  nations  : 
Woe  !  for  the  whole  world  has  become  darkness.  The 
Lord's  yine  has  withered,  there  is  no  one  to  tend  it.  The 
Lord  has  sent  laborers,  but  they  have  all  been  found 
idle.  The  head  of  the  Church  is  ill  and  her  members  are 
dead.  .  .  .  Shepherds  of  my  Church,  you  are  sleep- 
ing, but  I  shall  awaken  you  !  Kings  of  the  earth,  the 
cry  of  your  iniquity  has  risen  even  to  me."  1 

"Divine  justice,"  said  St.  Hildegarde  1178),  "  shall 
have  its  houi  ;  the  last  of  the  seven  epochs  symbolized 
by  the  seven  days  of  creation  has  arrived,  the  judg- 
ments of  God  are  about  to  be  accomplished  ;  the  empire 
and  the  papacy,  sunk  into  impiety,  shall  crumble  away 
together.  .  .  .  But  upon  their  ruins  shall  appear  a 
new  nation  of  God,  a  nation  of  prophets  illuminated 
from  on  high,  living  in  poverty  and  solitude.  Then  the 
divine  mysteries  shall  be  revealed,  and  the  sa}~ing  of 
Joel  shall  be  fulfilled  ;  the  Holy  Spirit  shall  shed  abroad 
upon  the  people  the  dew  of  his  prophecies,  of  his  wisdom 
and  holiness  ;  the  heathen,  the  Jews,  the  worldly  and  the 
unbelieving  shall  be  converted  together,  spring-time  and 
peace  shall  reign  over  a  regenerated  world,  and  the  an- 
gels will  return  with  confidence  to  dwell  among  men." 

These  hopes  were  not  wholly  confounded.  In  the 
evening  of  his  days  the  prophet  of  Fiore  was  able,  like  a 
new  Simeon,  to  utter  his  Nunc  dimittis,  and  for  a  few 
years  Christendom  could  turn  in  amazement  to  Âssisi  as 
to  a  new  Bethlehem. 

1  E.  Roth,  Die  VMonen  der  heiligen  Elisabeth  ton  Schonau  :  Briiiin, 
1884,  pp.  115-117. 


CHAPTER  IV 


STRUGGLES  AND  TRIUMPH 

Spring  of  1206— February  24,  1209 

The  biographies  of  St.  Francis  have  preserved  to  ns 
an  incident  which  shows  how  great  was  the  religious 
ferment  even  in  the  little  city  of  Assisi.  A  stranger 
was  seen  to  go  up  and  down  the  streets  saying  to  every 
one  he  met,  "  Peace  and  welfare  !  "  (Pax  et  bonum.)1  He 
thus  expressed  in  his  own  way  the  disquietude  of  those 
hearts  which  could  neither  resign  themselves  to  perpet- 
ual warfare  nor  to  the  disappearance  of  faith  and  love  ; 
artless  echo,  vibrating  in  response  to  the  hopes  and  fears 
that  were  shaking  all  Europe  ! 

"Vox  clamantis  in  deserto  !  "  it  will  be  said.  No,  for 
every  heart-cry  leaves  its  trace  even  when  it  seems  to 
be  uttered  in  empty  air,  and  that  of  the  Unknown  of  As- 
sisi may  have  contributed  in  some  measure  to  Francis's 
definitive  call. 

Since  his  abrupt  return  from  Spoleto,  life  in  his  fa- 
ther's house  had  become  daily  more  difficult.  Bernar- 
done's  self-love  had  received  from  his  son's  discomfiture 
such  a  wound  as  with  commonplace  men  is  never  healed. 
He  might  provide,  without  counting  it,  money  to  be 
swallowed  up  in  dissipation,  that  so  his  son  might  stand 
on  an  equal  footing  with  the  young  nobles;  he  could 
never  resign  himself  to  see  him  giving  with  lavish  hands 
to  every  beggar  in  the  streets. 

1  3  Soc.  26. 


54 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Francis,  continually  plunged  in  reverie  and  spending 
his  days  in  lonely  wanderings  in  the  fields,  was  no  longer 
of  the  least  use  to  his  father.  Months  passed,  and  the 
distance  between  the  two  men  grew  ever  wider  ;  and  the 
gentle  and  loving  Pica  could  do  nothing  to  prevent 
a  rupture  which  from  this  time  appeared  to  be  inevitable. 
Francis  soon  came  to  feel  only  one  desire,  to  flee  from 
the  abode  where,  in  the  place  of  love,  he  found  only  re- 
proaches, upbraidings,  anguish. 

The  faithful  confidant  of  his  earlier  struggles  had  been 
obliged  to  leave  him,  and  this  absolute  solitude  weighed 
heavily  upon  his  warm  and  loving  heart.  He  did  what 
he  could  to  escape  from  it,  but  no  one  understood  him. 
The  ideas  which  he  was  beginning  timidly  to  express 
evoked  from  those  to  whom  he  spoke  only  mocking 
smiles  or  the  head-shakings  which  men  sure  that  they 
are  right  bestow  upon  him  who  is  marching  straight 
to  madness.  He  even  went  to  open  his  mind  to  the  bish- 
op, but  the  latter  understood  no  more  than  others  his 
vague,  incoherent  plans,  filled  with  ideas  impossible  to 
realize  and  possibly  subversive.1,  It  was  thus  that  in  spite 

of  himself  Francis  was  led  to  asK  nothing  of  men,  but  to 

V. 

raise  himself  by  prayer  to  intuitive  knowledge  of  the 
divine  will.  The  doors  of  houses  and  of  hearts  were 
alike  closing  upon  him,  but  the  interior  voice  was  about 
to  speak  out  with  irresistible  force  and  make  itself  for- 
ever obeyed. 

Among  the  numerous  chapels  in  the  suburbs  of  Assisi 
there  was  one  which  he  particularly  loved,  that  of  St. 
Damian.  It  was  reached  by  a  few  minutes'  walk  over  a 
stony  path,  almost  trackless,  under  olive  trees,  amid 
odors  of  lavender  and  rosemary.  Standing  on  the  top  of 
a  hillock,  the  entire  plain  is  visible  from  it,  through  a 
curtain  of  cypresses  and  pines  which  seem  to  be  trying 
1  3  Soc,  10. 


STRUGGLES  AND  TRIUMPH 


55 


to  liide  the  liumble  hermitage  and  set  up  an  ideal 
barrier  between  it  and  the  world. 

Served  by  a  poor  priest  who  had  scarely  the  where- 
withal for  necessary  food,  the  sanctuary  was  failing  into 
ruin.  There  was  nothing  in  the  interior  but  a  simple 
altar  of  masonry,  and  by  way  of  reredos  one  of  those 
byzantine  crucifixes  still  so  numerous  in  Italy,  where 
through  the  work  of  the  artists  of  the  time  has  come  down 
to  us  something  of  the  terrors  which  agitated  the  twelfth 
century.  In  general  the  Crucified  One,  frightfully  lac- 
erated, with  bleeding  wounds,  appears  to  seek  to  in- 
spire only  grief  and  compunction  ;  that  of  St.  Damian,  on 
the  contrary,  has  an  expression  of  inexpressible  calm  and 
gentleness  ;  instead  of  closing  the  eyelids  in  eternal 
surrender  to  the  weight  of  suffering,  it  looks  down  in 
self-forgetfulness,  and  its  pure,  clear  gaze  says,  not  "  I 
suffer"  but,  "  Come  unto  me."  1 

One  day  Francis  was  praying  before  the  poor  altar  : 
"  Great  and  glorious  God,  and  thou,  Lord  Jesus,  I  pray 
ye,  shed  abroad  your  light  in  the  darkness  of  my  mind. 
.  .  .  Be  found  of  me,  Lord,  so  that  in  all  things 
I  may  act  only  in  accordance  with  thy  holy  will."  2 

Thus  he  prayed  in  his  heart,  and  behold,  little  by  little 
it  seemed  to  him  that  his  gaze  could  not  detach  itself  from 
that  of  Jesus  ;  he  felt  something  marvellous  taking  place 
in  and  around  him.  The  sacred  victim  took  on  life,  and 
in  the  outward  silence  he  was  aware  of  a  voice  which  softly 
stole  into  the  very  depths  of  his  heart,  speaking  to  him  an 
ineffable  language.  Jesus  accepted  his  oblation.  Jesus 
desired  his  labor,  his  life,  all  his  being,  and  the  heart  of  the 
poor  solitary  was  already  bathed  in  light  and  strength.3 

1  This  crucifix  is  preserved  in  the  sacristy  of  Santa  Chiara,  whither 
the  sisters  carried  it  when  they  left  St.  Damian. 

2  Opuscula  B.  Francisci,  Oratio  I. 

3  3  Soc,  13  ;  2  Cel.,  1,  6  ;  Bon.,  12  ;  15  ;  16. 


56 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


This  vision  marks  the  final  triumph  of  Francis.  His 
union  with  Christ  is  consummated  ;  from  this  time  he  can 
exclaim  with  the  mystics  of  every  age,  "  My  beloved 
is  mine,  and  I  am  his." 

But  instead  of  giving  himself  up  to  transports  of  con- 
templation he  at  once  asks  himself  how  he  may  repay  to 
Jesus  love  for  love,  in  what  action  he  shall  employ  this 
life  which  he  has  just  offered  to  him.  He  had  not  long 
to  seek.  We  have  seen  that  the  chapel  where  his  spiritual 
espousals  had  just  been  celebrated  was  threatened  with 
ruin.  He  believed  that  to  repair  it  was  the  work  assigned 
to  him. 

From  that  day  the  remembrance  of  the  Crucified  One, 
the  thought  of  the  love  which  had  triumphed  in  immo- 
lating itself,  became  the  very  centre  of  his  religious  life 
and  as  it  were  the  soul  of  his  soul.  For  the  first  time, 
no  doubt,  Francis  had  been  brought  into  direct,  per- 
sonal, intimate  contact  with  Jesus  Christ  ;  from  belief 
he  had  passed  to  faith,  to  that  living  faith  which  a  dis- 
tinguished thinker  has  so  well  defined  :  "To  believe  is 
to  look  ;  it  is  a  serious,  attentive,  and  prolonged  look  ; 
a  look  more  simple  than  that  of  observation,  a  look 
which  looks,  and  nothing  more  ;  artless,  infantine,  it  has 
all  the  soul  in  it,  it  is  a  look  of  the  soul  and  not  the 
mind,  a  look  which  does  not  seek  to  analyze  its  object, 
but  which  receives  it  as  a  whole  into  the  soul  through 
the  eyes."  In  these  words  Vinet  unconsciously  has  mar- 
vellously characterized  the  religious  temperament  of  St. 
Francis. 

This  look  of  love  cast  upon  the  crucifix,  this  mysterious 
colloquy  with  the  compassionate  victim,  was  never  more 
to  cease.  At  St.  Damian,  St.  Francis's  piety  took  on 
its  outward  appearance  and  its  originality.  From  this 
time  his  soul  bears  the  stigmata,  and  as  his  biographers 
have  said  in  words  untranslatable,  Ah  ilia  hora  ruinera- 


STRUGGLES  AXD  TRIUMPH 


57 


turn  et  liquefactum  est  cor  ejus  erf  memôriam  Bominicœ 
passionis.1 

From  that  time  bis  way  was  plain  before  him.  Coming 
out  from  the  sanctuary,  he  gave  the  priest  all  the  money 
he  had  about  him  to  keep  a  lamp  always  burning,  and 
with  ravished  heart  he  returned  to  Assisi.  He  had 
decided  to  quit  his  father's  house  and  undertake  the 
restoration  of  the  chapel,  after  having  broken  the  last 
ties  that  bound  him  to  the  past.  À  horse  and  a  few 
pieces  of  gayly  colored  stuffs  were  all  that  he  possessed. 
Arrived  at  home  he  made  a  packet  of  the  stuffs,  and 
mounting  his  horse  he  set  out  for  Foligno.  This  city 
was  then  as  now  the  most  important  commercial  town  of 
all  the  region.  Its  fairs  attracted  the  whole  population 
of  Umbria  and  the  Sabines.  Bernardone  had  often  tak- 
en his  son  there,2  and  Francis  speedily  succeeded  in  sell- 
ing all  he  had  brought.  He  even  parted  with  his  horse, 
and  full  of  joy  set  out  upon  the  road  to  Assisi.3 

This  act  was  to  him  most  important  ;  it  marked  his 
final  rupture  with  the  past  ;  from  this  day  on  his  life  was 
to  be  in  all  points  the  opposite  of  what  it  had  been  ;  the 
Crucified  had  given  himself  to  him  :  he  on  his  side  had 
given  himself  to  the  Crucified  without  reserve  or  return. 
To  uncertainty,  disquietude  of  soul,  anguish,  longing  for 
an  unknown  good,  bitter  regrets,  had  succeeded  a  deli- 
cious calm,  the  ecstasy  of  the  lost  child  who  finds  his 
mother,  and  forgets  in  a  moment  the  torture  of  his  heart. 

From  Foligno  he  returned  direct  to  St.  Damian  ;  it 
was  not  necessary  to  pass  through  the  city,  and  he  was 
in  haste  to  put  his  projects  into  execution. 

1  3  Soc,  14. 

2  This  incident  is  found  in  the  narrative  of  1  Cel.,  8:  Ibi.  ex  more 
xenditis. 

31  Cel.,  8;  3  Soc,  16  ;  Bon.  16.  Foligno  is  a  three  hours'  walk 
from  Assisi. 


58 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


The  poor  priest  was  surprised  enough  when  Francis 
handed  over  to  him  the  whole  product  of  his  sale.  He 
doubtless  thought  that  a  passing  quarrel  had  occurred 
between  Bernardone  and  his  son,  and  for  greater  pru- 
dence refused  the  gift  ;  but  Francis  so  insisted  upon  re- 
maining with  him  that  he  finally  gave  him  leave  to  do  so. 
As  to  the  money,  now  become  useless,  Francis  cast  it  as 
a  worthless  object  upon  a  window-seat  in  the  chapel.1 

MeanAvhile  Bernardone,  disturbed  by  his  son's  fail- 
ure to  return,  sought  for  him  in  all  quarters,  and  was 
not  long  in  learning  of  his  presence  at  St.  Damian. 
In  a  moment  he  perceived  that  Francis  was  lost  to  him. 
Eesolved  to  try  every  means,  he  collected  a  few  neigh- 
bors, and  furious  with  rage  hastened  to  the  hermitage  to 
snatch  him  away,  if  need  were,  by  main  force. 

But  Francis  knew  his  father's  violence.  When  he 
heard  the  shouts  of  those  who  were  in  pursuit  of  him  he 
felt  his  courage  fail  and  hurried  to  a  hiding-place  which 
he  had  prepared  for  himself  for  precisely  such  an  emer- 
gency. Bernardone,  no  doubt  ill  seconded  in  the  search, 
ransacked  every  corner,  but  was  obliged  at  last  to  return 
to  Assisi  without  his  son.  Francis  remained  hidden  for 
long  days,  weeping  and  groaning,  imploring  God  to  show 
him  the  path  he  ought  to  follow.  Notwithstanding  his 
fears  he  had  an  infinite  joy  at  heart,  and  at  no  price 
would  he  have  turned  back.2 

This  seclusion  could  not  last  long.  Francis  perceived 
this,  and  told  himself  that  for  a  newly  made  knight  of  the 
Christ  he  was  cutting  a  very  pitiful  figure.  Arming  him- 
self, therefore,  with  courage,  he  went  one  day  to  the  city 
to  present  himself  before  his  father  and  make  known  to 
him  his  resolution. 

It  is  easy  to  imagine  the  changes  wrought  in  his  ap- 

1  1  Cel.,  9  ;  3  Soc  ,  16  ;  Bon.,  6.    Cf.  A.  SS„  p.  567. 

2  1  Cel..  10;  3  Soc,  16  ;  Bon.  17,  A.  SS.  ;  p.  568. 


STRUGGLES  AXD  TRIUMPH 


59 


pearance  by  these  few  weeks  of  seclusion,  passed  much 
of  them  in  mental  anguish.  When  he  appeared,  pale, 
cadaverous,  his  clothes  in  tatters,  upon  what  is  now  the 
Piazza  Nuova,  where  hundreds  of  children  play  all  day 
long,  he  was  greeted  with  a  great  shout,  "  Pazzo,  Pazzo  !  " 
(A  madman!  a  madman!)  li  Un  pazzo  ne  fa  cento"  (One 
madman  makes  a  hundred  more),  says  the  proverb,  but 
one  must  have  seen  the  delirious  excitement  of  the  street 
children  of  Italy  at  the  sight  of  a  madman  to  gain  an  idea 
how  true  it  is.  The  moment  the  magic  cry  resounds  they 
rush  into  the  street  with  frightful  din,  and  while  their 
parents  look  on  from  the  windows,  they  surround  the 
unhappy  sufferer  with  wild  dances  mingled  with  songs, 
shouts,  and  savage  howls.  They  throw  stones  at  him,  fling 
mud  upon  him,  blindfold  him  ;  if  he  flies  into  a  rage,  they 
double  their  insults  ;  if  he  weeps  or  begs  for  pity,  they 
repeat  his  cries  and  mimic  his  sobs  and  supplications 
without  respite  and  without  mercy.1 

Bernardone  soon  heard  the  clamor  which  filled  the  nar- 
row streets,  and  went  out  to  enjoy  the  show  ;  suddenly 
he  thought  he  heard  his  own  name  and  that  of  his  son, 
and  bursting  with  shame  and  rage  he  perceived  Francis. 
Throwing  himself  upon  him,  as  if  to  throttle  him,  he 
dragged  him  into  the  house  and  cast  him,  half  dead,  into 
a  dark  closet.  Threats,  bad  usage,  everything  was 
brought  to  bear  to  change  the  prisoner's  resolves,  but  all 
in  vain.  At  last,  wearied  out  and  desperate,  he  left  him 
in  peace,  though  not  without  having  firmly  bound  him.2 

A  few  days  after  he  was  obliged  to  be  absent  for  a 
short  time.  Pica,  his  wife,  understood  only  too  well  his 
grievances  against  Francis,  but  feeling  that  violence 
would  be  of  no  avail  she  resolved  to  try  gentleness.  It 
was  all  in  vain.  Then,  not  being  able  longer  to  see  him 
thus  tortured,  she  set  him  at  liberty. 

1  1  Cel.  ,  11.  2  1  Cel.,  12  ;  3  Soc,  17  ;  Bon.,  18. 


60 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


He  returned  straight  to  St.  Damian.1 

Bernardone,  on  his  return,  went  so  far  as  to  strike  Pica 
in  punishment  for  her  weakness.  Then,  unable  to  toler- 
ate the  thought  of  seeing  his  son  the  jest  of  the  whole 
city,  he  tried  to  procure  his  expulsion  from  the  territory 
of  Assisi.  Going  to  St.  Damian  he  summoned  him  to 
leave  the  country.  This  time  Francis  did  not  try  to  hide. 
Boldly  presenting  himself  before  his  father,  he  declared 
to  him  that  not  only  would  nothing  induce  him  to  aban- 
don his  resolutions,  but  that,  moreover,  having  become 
the  servant  of  Christ,  he  had  no  longer  to  receive  orders 
from  him.2  As  Bernardone  launched  out  into  invective, 
reproaching  him  with  the  enormous  sums  which  he  had 
cost  him,  Francis  showed  him  by  a  gesture  the  money 
which  he  had  brought  back  from  the  sale  at  Foligno 
lying  on  the  window-ledge.  The  father  greedily  seized 
it  and  went  away,  resolving  to  appeal  to  the  magistrates. 

The  consuls  summoned  Francis  to  appear  before  them, 
but  he  replied  simply  that  as  servant  of  the  Church  he 
did  not  come  under  their  jurisdiction.  Glad  of  this  re- 
sponse, which  relieved  them  of  a  delicate  dilemma,  they 
referred  the  complainant  to  the  diocesan  authorities.3 

The  matter  took  on  another  aspect  before  the  ecclesi- 
astical tribunal  ;  it  was  idle  to  dream  of  asking  the  bishop 
to  pronounce  a  sentence  of  banishment,  since  it  was  his 
part  to  preserve  the  liberty  of  the  clerics.  Bernardone 
could  do  no  more  than  disinherit  his  son,  or  at  least 
induce  him  of  his  own  accord  to  renounce  all  claim  upon 
his  inheritance.    This  was  not  difficult. 

When  called  upon  to  appear  before  the  episcopal  tri- 

1  1  Cel.,  13  ;  3  Soc.,  18. 

2  1  Cel.,  13.  It  is  possible  that  at  tins  epoch  he  had  received  the 
lesser  order,  and  that  thus  he  might  be  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Church. 

3  3  Soc,  18  and  19  ;  1  Cel.,  14  ;  Bon.,  19. 


STRUGGLES  AND  TRIUMPH 


61 


burial 1  Francis  experienced  a  lively  joy  ;  his  mystical 
espousals  to  the  Crucified  One  were  now  to  receive  a  sort 
of  official  consecration.  To  this  Jesus,  whom  he  had  so 
often  blasphemed  and  betrayed  by  word  and  conduct,  he 
would  now  be  able  with  equal  publicity  to  promise  obe- 
dience and  fidelity. 

It  is  easy  to  imagine  the  sensation  which  all  this  caused 
in  a  small  town  like  Assisi,  and  the  crowd  that  on  the 
appointed  day  pressed  toward  the  Piazza  of  Santa  Maria 
Maggiore,  where  the  bishop  pronounced  sentence.2  Ev- 
ery one  held  Francis  to  be  assuredly  mad,  but  they 
anticipated  with  relish  the  shame  and  rage  of  Bernar- 
done,  whom  every  one  detested,  and  whose  pride  was  so 
well  punished  by  all  this. 

The  bishop  first  set  forth  the  case,  and  advised  Francis 
to  simply  give  up  all  his  property.  To  the  great  surprise 
of  the  crowd  the  latter,  instead  of  replying,  retired  to 
a  room  in  the  bishop's  palace,  and  immediately  reap- 
peared absolutely  naked,  holding  in  his  hand  the  packet 
into  which  he  had  rolled  his  clothes  ;  these  he  laid  down 
before  the  bishop  with  the  little  money  that  he  still  had 
kept,  saying  :  "  Listen,  all  of  you,  and  understand  it 
well  ;  until  this  time  I  have  called  Pietro  Bernardone  my 
father,  but  now  I  desire  to  serve  God.  This  is  why  I 
return  to  him  this  money,  for  which  he  has  given  himself 
so  much  trouble,  as  well  as  my  clothing,  and  all  that  I 
have  had  from  him,  for  from  henceforth  I  desire  to  say 
nothing  else  than  '  Our  Father,  who  art  in  heaven'  " 

A  long  murmur  arose  from  the  crowd  when  Bernardone 
was  seen  to  gather  up  and  carry  off  the  clothing  without 
the  least  evidence  of  compassion,  while  the  bishop  was 

1  From  1204  until  after  the  death  of  St.  Francis  the  episcopal  throne 
of  Assisi  was  occupied  by  Guido  II.    Vide  Cristofano,  1,  169  ff. 

2  Piazza  di  Santa  Maria,  Macjgiore  o  del  vescovado.  Everything  has 
remained  pretty  nearly  in  the  same  state  as  in  the  thirteenth  century. 


62 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


fain  to  take  under  Lis  mantle  the  poor  Francis,  who  was 
trembling  with  emotion  and  cold.1 

The  scene  of  the  judgment  hall  made  an  immense  im- 
pression ;  the  ardor,  simplicity,  and  indignation  of  Fran- 
cis had  been  so  profound  and  sincere  that  scoffers  were 
disconcerted.  On  that  day  he  won  for  himself  a  secret 
sympathy  in  many  souls.  The  populace  loves  such  ab- 
rupt conversions,  or  those  which  it  considers  such.  Fran- 
cis once  again  forced  himself  upon  the  attention  of  his 
fellow-citizens  with  a  power  all  the  greater  for  the  con- 
trast between  his  former  and  his  new  life. 

There  are  pious  folk  whose  modesty  is  snocked  by  the 
nudity  of  Francis  ;  but  Italy  is  not  Germany  nor  Eng- 
land, and  the  thirteenth  century  would  have  been  aston- 
ished indeed  at  the  prudery  of  the  Bollandists.  The 
incident  is  simply  a  new  manifestation  of  Francis's  char- 
acter, with  its  ingenuousness,  its  exaggerations,  its  long- 
ing to  establish  a  complete  harmony,  a  literal  corre- 
spondence, between  words  and  actions. 

After  emotions  such  as  he  had  just  experienced  he  felt 
the  need  of  being  alone,  of  realizing  his  joy,  of  singing 
the  liberty  he  had  finally  achieved  along  all  the  lines 
where  once  he  had  so  deeply  suffered,  so  ardently 
struggled.  He  would  not,  therefore,  return  immediately 
to  St.  Damian.  Leaving  the  city  by  the  nearest  gate, 
he  plunged  into  the  deserted  paths  which  climb  the 
sides  of  Mount  Subasio. 

It  was  the  early  spring.  Here  and  there  were  still 
great  drifts  of  snow,  but  under  the  ardor  of  the  March 
sun  winter  seemed  to  own  itself  vanquished.  In  the 
midst  of  this  mysterious  and  bewildering  harmony  the 
heart  of  Francis  felt  a  delicious  thrill,  all  his  being  was 
calmed  and  uplifted,  the  soul  of  things  caressed  him 
gently  and  shed  upon  him  peace.    An  unwonted  hap- 

1  1  Cel.,  13  ;  3  Sue.  20;  Bon.  20. 


STRUGGLES  AND  TRIUMPH 


63 


piness  swept  over  him  ;  he  made  the  forest  to  resound 
with  his  hymns  of  praise. 

Men  utter  in  song  emotions  too  street  or  too  deep  to  be 
expressed  in  ordinary  language,  but  unworded  music  is 
in  this  respect  superior  to  song,  it  is  above  all  things  the 
language  of  the  ineffable.  Song  gains  almost  the  same 
value  when  the  wotds  are  only  there  as  a  support  for  the 
voice.  The  great  beauty  of  the  psalms  and  hymns  of  the 
Church  lies  in  the  fact  that  being  sung  in  an  unknown 
tongue  they  make  no  appeal  to  the  intelligence  ;  they  say 
nothing,  but  they  express  everything  with  marvellous 
modulations  like  a  celestial  accompaniment,  which  fol- 
lows the  believer's  emotions  from  the  most  agonizing 
struggles  to  the  most  unspeakable  ecstasies. 

So  Francis  went  on  his  way,  deeply  inhaling  the  odors 
of  spring,  singing  at  the  top  of  his  voice  one  of  those  songs 
of  French  chivalry  which  he  had  learned  in  days  gone  by. 

The  forest  in  which  he  was  walking  was  the  usual  re- 
treat of  such  people  of  Assisi  and  its  environs  as  had 
any  reason  for  hiding.  Some  ruffians,  aroused  by  his 
voice,  suddenly  fell  upon  him.  "  TYho  are  you  ?  "  they 
asked.  "I  am  the  herald  of  the  great  King,"  he  an- 
swered; "but  what  is  that  to  you?  " 

His  only  garment  was  an  old  mantle  which  the  bish- 
op's gardener  had  lent  him  at  his  master's  request. 
They  stripped  it  from  him,  and  throwing  him  into  a  ditch 
full  of  snow,  "  There  is  your  place,  poor  herald  of  God," 
they  said. 

The  robbers  gone,  he  shook  off  the  snow  which  covered 
him,  and  after  may  efforts  succeeded  in  extricating  him- 
self from  the  ditch.  Stiff  with  cold,  with  no  other  cover- 
ing than  a  worn-out  shirt,  he  none  the  less  resumed  his 
singing,  happy  to  suffer  and  thus  to  accustom  himself  the 
better  to  understand  the  words  of  the  Crucified  One.1 

1  3  Soc,  1(3  ;  Bon.,  21. 


64 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Not  far  away  was  a  monastery.  He  entered  and 
offered  his  services.  In  those  solitudes,  peopled  often 
by  such  undesirable  neighbors,  people  were  suspicious. 
The  monks  permitted  him  to  make  himself  useful  in  the 
kitchen,  but  they  gave  him  nothing  to  cover  himself  with 
and  hardly  anything  to  eat.  There  was  nothing  for  it 
but  to  go  away  ;  he  directed  his  steps  toward  Gubbio, 
where  he  knew  that  he  should  find  a  friend.  Perhaps 
this  was  he  who  had  been  his  confidant  on  his  return 
from  Spoleto.  However  this  may  be,  he  received  from 
him  a  tunic,  and  a  f ewr  days  after  set  out  to  return  to  his 
dear  St.  Damian.1 

He  did  not,  however,  go  directly  thither  ;  before  be- 
ginning to  restore  the  little  sanctuary,  he  desired  to  see 
again  his  friends,  the  lepers,  to  promise  them  that  he 
would  love  them  even  better  than  in  the  past. 

Since  his  first  visit  to  the  leper-house  the  brilliant 
cavalier  had  become  a  poor  beggar  ;  he  came  with  empty 
hands  but  with  heart  overflowing  with  tenderness  and 
compassion.  Taking  up  his  abode  in  the  midst  of  these 
afflicted  ones  he  lavished  upon  them  the  most  touching 
care,  washing  and  wiping  their  sores,  all  the  more  gentle 
and  radiant  as  their  sores  were  more  repulsive.'  The 
neglected  sufferer  is  as  much  blinded  by  love  of  him  who 
comes  to  visit  him  as  the  child  by  its  love  for  its  mother. 
He  believes  him  to  be  all  powerful  ;  at  his  approach  the 
most  painful  sufferings  are  eased  or  disappear. 

1  1  Cel.,  16  ;  Bon.  21.  The  curious  will  read  with  interest  an  article 
by  M.  Mezzatinti  upon  the  journey  to  Gubbio  entitled  S.  Francesco  e 
Frederico  Spadalunc/a  da  Gubbio.  [Miscellanea,  t.  v.,  pp. 76-78.]  This 
Spadalunga  da  Gubbio  was  well  able  to  give  a  garment  to  Francis,  but 
it  is  very  possible  that  the  gift  was  made  much  later  and  that  this 
solemn  date  in  the  saint's  life  has  been  fixed  by  an  optical  illusion,  almost 
inevitable  because  of  the  identity  of  the  fact  with  the  name  of  the 
locality. 

-  1  Cel.,  17;  Bon..  11  ;  13;  21  ;  22  ;  3  Soc,  11  ;  A.  SS.,  p.  575. 


STRUGGLES  AND  TRIUMPH 


6S 


This  love  inspired  by  the  sympathy  of  an  affectionate 
heart  may  become  so  deep  as  to  appear  at  times  super- 
natural ;  the  dying  have  been  known  to  recover  con- 
sciousness in  order  to  look  for  the  last  time  into  the  face, 
not  of  some  member  of  the  family,  but  of  the  friend  who 
has  tried  to  be  the  sunshine  of  their  last  days.  The  ties 
of  pure  love  are  stronger  than  the  bonds  of  flesh  and  blood. 
Francis  had  many  a  time  sweet  experience  of  this  ;  from 
the  time  of  his  arrival  at  the  leper-house  he  felt  that  if 
he  had  lost  his  life  he  was  about  to  find  it  again. 

Encouraged  by  his  sojourn  among  the  lepers,  he  re- 
turned to  St.  Damian  and  went  to  work,  filled  with  joy 
and  ardor,  his  heart  as  much  in  the  sunshine  as  the 
Umbrian  plain  in  this  beautiful  month  of  May.  After 
having  fashioned  for  himself  a  hermit's  dress,  he  began 
to  go  into  the  squares  and  open  places  of  the  city. 
There  having  sung  a  few  hymns,  he  would  announce  to 
those  who  gathered  around  him  his  project  of  restoring 
the  chapel.  "  Those  who  will  give  me  one  stone,"  he 
would  add  with  a  smile,  "  shall  have  a  reward  ;  those 
who  give  me  two  shall  have  two  rewards,  and  those  who 
give  me  three  shall  have  three." 

Many  deemed  him  mad,  but  others  were  deeply  moved 
by  the  remembrance  of  the  past.  As  for  Francis,  deaf 
to  mockery,  he  spared  himself  no  labor,  carrying  upon 
his  shoulders,  so  ill-fitted  for  severe  toil,  the  stones  which 
were  given  him.1 

During  this  time  the  poor  priest  of  St.  Damian  felt  his 
heart  swelling  with  love  for  this  companion  who  had  at 
first  caused  him  such  embarrassment,  and  he  strove  to 
prepare  for  him  his  favorite  dishes.  Francis  soon  per- 
ceived it.  His  delicacy  took  alarm  at  the  expense  which 
he  caused  his  friend,  and,  thanking  him,  he  resolved  to 
beg  his  food  from  door  to  door. 

1  1  Cel.,  18  ;  3  Soc,  21  ;  Bon.,  23. 

5 


66 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


It  was  not  an  easy  task.  The  first  time,  when  at  the 
end  of  his  round  he  glanced  at  the  broken  food  in  his 
wallet,  he  felt  his  courage  fail  him.  But  the  thought  of 
being  so  soon  unfaithful  to  the  spouse  to  whom  he  had 
plighted  his  faith  made  his  blood  run  cold  with  shame 
and  gave  him  strength  to  eat  ravenously.1 

Each  hour,  so  to  speak,  brought  to  him  a  new  struggle. 
One  day  he  was  going  through  the  town  begging  for  oil 
for  the  lamps  of  St.  Damian,  when  he  arrived  at  a 
house  where  a  banquet  was  going  on  ;  the  greater  number 
of  his  former  companions  were  there,  singing  and  danc- 
ing. At  the  sound  of  those  well-known  voices  he  felt  as 
if  he  could  not  enter  ;  he  even  turned  away,  but  very 
soon,  filled  with  confusion  by  his  own  cowardice,  he 
returned  quickly  upon  his  steps,  made  his  way  into  the 
banquet-hall,  and  after  confessing  his  shame,  put  so  much 
earnestness  and  fire  into  his  request  that  every  one  de- 
sired to  co-operate  in  this  pious  work.2 

His  bitterest  trial  however  was  his  father's  anger, 
which  remained  as  violent  as  ever.  Although  he  had 
renounced  Francis,  Bernardone's  pride  suffered  none  the 
less  at  seeing  his  mode  of  life,  and  whenever  he  met  his 
son  he  overwhelmed  him  with  reproaches  and  maledic- 
tions. The  tender  heart  of  Francis  was  so  wrung  with 
sorrow  that  he  resorted  to  a  sort  of  stratagem  for 
charming  away  the  spell  of  the  paternal  imprecations. 
"Come  with  me,"  he  said  to  a  beggar;  "be  to  me  as  a 
father,  and  I  will  give  you  a  part  of  the  alms  which  I 
receive.  When  you  see  Bernardone  curse  me,  if  I  say, 
'  Bless  me,  my  father,'  you  must  sign  me  with  the  cross 
and  bless  me  in  his  stead."3  His  brother  was  prominent 
in  the  front  rank  of  those  who  harassed  him  with  their 
mockeries.    One  winter  morning  they  met  in  a  church  ; 

1  3  Soc,  22  ;  2  Cel.,  1,9.        ":  3  Soc,  24  ;  2  Cel.,  8  ;  Spec.,  24. 
3  3  Soc.  23  ;  2  Cel.,  7. 


STRUGGLES  AND  TRIUMPH 


67 


Angelo  leaned  over  to  a  friend  who  was  with  him,  saying  : 
"  Go,  ask  Francis  to  sell  you  a  farthing's  worth  of  his 
sweat."  "No,"  replied  the  latter,  who  overheard.  "I 
shall  sell  it  much  dearer  to  my  God." 

In  the  spring  of  1208  he  finished  the  restoration  of 
St.  Damian  ;  he  had  been  aided  by  all  people  of  good 
will,  setting  the  example  of  work  and  above  all  of  joy, 
cheering  everybody  by  his  songs  and  his  projects  for 
the  future.  He  spoke  with  such  enthusiasm  and  con- 
tagious warmth  of  the  transformation  of  his  dear  chap- 
el, of  the  grace  which  God  would  accord  to  those  who 
should  come  there  to  pray,  that  later  on  it  was  believed 
that  he  had  spoken  of  Clara  and  her  holy  maidens  who 
were  to  retire  to  this  place  four  years  later.1 

This  success  soon  inspired  him  with  the  idea  of  repair- 
ing the  other  sanctuaries  in  the  suburbs  of  Assisi. 
Those  which  had  struck  him  by  their  state  of  decay  were 
St.  Peter  and  Santa  Maria,  of  the  Portiuncula,  called 
also  Santa  Maria  degli  Angeli.  The  former  is  not  other- 
wise mentioned  in  his  biographies.2  As  to  the  sec- 
ond, it  was  to  become  the  true  cradle  of  the  Franciscan 
movement. 

This  chapel,  still  standing  at  the  present  day  after 
escaping  revolutions  and  earthquakes,  is  a  true  Bethel, 
one  of  those  rare  spots  in  the  world  on  which  rests  the 
mystic  ladder  which  joins  heaven  to  earth  ;  there  were 
dreamed  some  of  the  noblest  dreams  which  have  soothed 
the  pains  of  humanity.  It  is  not  to  Assisi  in  its  marvel- 
lous basilica  that  one  must  go  to  divine  and  comprehend 
St.  Francis;  he  must  turn  his  steps  to  Santa  Maria 
degli  Angeli  at  the  hours  when  the  stated  prayers  cease, 
at  the  moment  when  the  evening  shadows  lengthen,  when 
all  the  fripperies  of  worship  disappear  in  the  obscurity, 

1  3  Soc,  24  ;  Testament  de  Claire,  Wadding,  ann.  1253  t. 

2  Cel.,  21  :  Bon.,  24. 


GS 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


when  all  the  nation  seems  to  collect  itself  to  listen  to  the 
chime  of  the  distant  church  bells.  Doubtless  it  was 
Francis's  plan  to  settle  there  as  a  hermit.  He  dreamed 
of  passing  his  life  there  in  meditation  and  silence,  keep- 
ing up  the  little  church  and  from  time  to  time  inviting  a 
priest  there  to  say  mass.  Nothing  as  yet  suggested  to 
him  that  he  was  in  the  end  to  become  a  religious  founder. 
One  of  the  most  interesting  aspects  of  his  life  is  in  fact 
the  continual- development  revealing  itself  in  him;  he  is 
of  the  small  number  to  whom  to  live  is  to  be  active,  and 
to  be  active  to  make  progress.  There  is  hardly  anyone, 
except  St.  Paul,  in  whom  is  found  to  the  same  degree 
the  devouring  need  of  being  always  something  more, 
always  something  better,  and  it  is  so  beautiful  in  both 
of  them  only  because  it  is  absolutely  instinctive. 

When  he  began  to  restore  the  Portiuncula  his  projects 
hardly  went  beyond  a  very  narrow  horizon  ;  he  was  pre- 
paring himself  for  a  life  of  penitence  rather  than  a  life  of 
activity.  But  these  works  once  finished  it  was  impos- 
sible that  this  somewhat  selfish  and  passive  manner  of 
achieving  his  own  salvation  should  satisfy  him  long.  At 
the  memory  of  the  appearance  of  the  Crucified  One  his 
heart  would  swell  with  overpowering  emotions,  and  he 
would  melt  into  tears  without  knowing  whether  they  were 
of  admiration,  pity,  or  desire.1 

When  the  repairs  were  finished  meditation  occupied 
the  greater  part  of  his  days.  A  Benedictine  of  the 
Abbey  of  Mont  Subasio  2  came  from  time  to  time  to  say 
mass  at  Santa  Maria;  these  were  the  bright  hours  of 
St.  Francis's  life.  One  can  imagine  with  what  pious 
care  he  prepared  himself  and  with  what  faith  he  listened 
to  the  divine  teachings. 

One  day,  it  was  probably  February  21,  1209,  the  fes- 

1  3  Soc  ,  14  ;  2  Cel.,  i.,  G. 

2  Portiuncula  was  a  dependence  of  tins  abbey. 


STRUGGLES  AND  TRIUMPH 


69 


tival  of  St.  Matthias,  mass  was  being  celebrated  at  the 
Portiuncula.1  T\ lien  the  priest  turned  toward  him  to 
read  the  words  of  Jesus,  Francis  felt  himself  over- 
powered with  a  profound  agitation.  He  no  longer  saw 
the  priest;  it  was  Jesus,  the  Crucified  One  of  St. 
Damian,  who  was  speaking  :  "  Wherever  ye  go,  preach, 
saying,  e  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand.  Heal  the 
sick,  cleanse  the  lepers,  cast  out  devils.  Freely  ye  have 
received,  freely  give.  Provide  neither  silver  nor  gold 
nor  brass  in  your  purses,  neither  scrip  nor  two  coats, 
nor  shoes  nor  staff,  for  the  laborer  is  worthy  of  his 
meat.'  " 

These  words  burst  upon  him  like  a  revelation,  like  the 
answer  of  Heaven  to  his  sighs  and  anxieties. 

"  This  is  what  I  want,"  he  cried,  "  this  is  what  I  was 
seeking  ;  from  this  clay  forth  I  shall  set  myself  with  all 
my  strength  to  put  it  in  practice."  Immediately  throw-  , 
ing  aside  his  stick,  his  scrip,  his  purse,  his  shoes,  he 
determined  immediately  to  obey,  observing  to  the  letter 
.the  precepts  of  the  apostolic  life. 

It  is  quite  possible  that  some  allegorizing  tendencies 
have  had  some  influence  upon  this  narrative.2  The  long 
struggle  through  which  Francis  passed  before  becom- . 
ing  the  apostle  of  the  new  times  assuredly  came  to  a 
crisis  in  the  scene  at  Portiuncula  ;  but  we  have  already 
seen  how  slow  was  the  interior  travail  which  prepared 
for  it. 

The  revelation  of  Francis  was  in  his  heart  ;  the  sacred 
fire  which  he  was  to  communicate  to  the  souls  of  others 
came  from  within  his  own,  but  the  best  causes  need  a 

1  This  is  the  date  adopted  by  the  Bollandists,  because  the  ancient  mis- 
sals mark  the  pericope,  Matt,  x.,  for  the  gospel  of  this  day.  This  en- 
tails no  difficulty  and  in  any  case  it  cannot  be  very  far  distant  from  the 
truth.    A.  SS.,  p.  574. 

2  See  in  particular  Bon.,  25  and  26.    Cf.  A.  SS.,  p.  oTTd. 


70 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


standard.  Before  the  shabby  altar  of  the  Portiuncula  he 
had  perceived  the  banner  of  poverty,  sacrifice,  and  love, 
he  would  carry  it  to  the  assault  of  every  fortress  of  sin  ; 
under  its  shadow,  a  true  knight  of  Christ,  he  would 
marshal  all  the  valiant  warriors  of  a  spiritual  strife. 


CHAPTER  Y 


FIRST  YEAR  OF  APOSTOLATE 
Spring  of  1209— Summer  of  1210 

The  very  next  morning  Francis  went  up  to  Assisi  and 
began  to  preach.  His  words  were  simple,  but  they  came 
so  straight  from  the  heart  that  all  who  heard  him  were 
touched. 

It  is  not  easy  to  hear  and  apply  to  one's  self  the  ex- 
hortations of  preachers  who,  aloft  in  the  pulpit,  seem 
to  be  carrying  out  a  mere  formality  ;  it  is  just  as  difficult 
to  escape  from  the  appeals  of  a  layman  who  walks  at  our 
side.  The  amazing  multitude  of  Protestant  sects  is  due 
in  a  great  degree  to  this  superiority  of  lay  preaching 
over  clerical.  The  most  brilliant  orators  of  the  Christian 
pulpit  are  bad  converters  ;  their  eloquent  appeals  may 
captivate  the  imagination  and  lead  a  few  men  of  the 
world  to  the  foot  of  the  altar,  but  these  results  are  not 
more  brilliant  than  ephemeral.  But  let  a  peasant  or  a 
workingman  speak  to  those  whom  he  meets  a  few  simple 
words  going  directly  to  the  conscience,  and  the  man  is 
always  impressed,  often  won. 

Thus  the  words  of  Francis  seemed  to  his  hearers  like 
a  flaming  sword  penetrating  to  the  very  depths  of  their 
conscience.  His  first  attempts  were  the  simplest  possi- 
ble ;  in  general  they  were  merely  a  few  words  addressed 
to  men  whom  he  knew  well  enough  to  recognize  their  weak 
points  and  strike  at  them  with  the  holy  boldness  of  love. 


72 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


His  person,  his  example,  were  themselves  a  sermon,  and 
lie  spoke  only  of  that  which  he  had  himself  experienced, 
proclaiming  repentance,  the  shortness  of  life,  a  future 
retribution,  the  necessity  of  arriving  at  gospel  perfec- 
tion.1 It  is  not  easy  to  realize  how  many  waiting  souls 
there  are  in  this  world.  The  greater  number  of  men 
pass  through  life  with  souls  asleep.  They  are  like  vir- 
gins of  the  sanctuary  who  sometimes  feel  a  vague  agita- 
tion ;  their  hearts  throb  with  an  infinitely  sweet  and  sub- 
tile thrill,  but  their  eyelids  droop  ;  again  they  feel  the 
damp  cold  of  the  cloister  creeping  over  them  ;  the  deli- 
cious but  baneful  dream  vanishes  ;  and  this  is  all  they 
ever  know  of  that  love  which  is  stronger  than  death. 

It  is  thus  with  many  men  for  all  that  belongs  to  the 
higher  life.  Sometimes,  alone  in  the  wide  plain  at  the 
hour  of  twilight,  they  fix  their  eyes  on  the  fading  lights 
of  the  horizon,  and  on  the  evening  breeze  comes  to  them 
another  breath,  more  distant,  fainter,  and  almost  heaven- 
ly, awaking  in  them  a  nostalgia  for  the  world  beyond 
and  for  holiness.  But  the  darkness  falls,  they  must  go 
back  to  their  homes  ;  they  shake  off  their  reverie  ;  and 
it  often  happens  that  to  the  very  end  of  life  this  is  their 
only  glimpse  of  the  Divine  ;  a  few  sighs,  a  few  thrills,  a 
few  inarticulate  murmurs — this  sums  rip  all  our  efforts 
to  attain  to  the  sovereign  good. 

Yet  the  instinct  for  love  and  for  the  divine  is  only 
slumbering.  At  the  sight  of  beauty  love  always  awakes; 
at  the  appeal  of  holiness  the  divine  witness  within  us  at 
once  responds  ;  and  so  Ave  see,  streaming  from  all  points 
of  the  horizon  to  gather  around  those  who  preach  in  the 
name  of  the  inward  voice,  long  processions  of  souls 
athirst  for  the  ideal.  The  human  heart  so  naturally 
yearns  to  offer  itself  up,  that  we  have  only  to  meet  along 

1  1  Cel.,  23  ;  3  Soc,  25  and  26  ;  Bon  ,  27.  Cf.  Auct.  Vit.  Sec.  ap. ,  A. 
SS.,  p.  579. 


FIRST  YEAR  OF  APOSTOLATE 


73 


our  pathway  some  one  who,  doubting  neither  himself 
nor  us,  demands  it  without  reserve,  and  we  yield  it  to 
him  at  once.  Eeason  may  understand  a  partial  gift,  a 
transient  devotion  ;  the  heart  knows  only  the  entire  sac- 
rifice, and  like  the  lover  to  his  beloved,  it  says  to  its  van- 
quisher, "  Thine  alone  and  forever.'' 

That  which  has  caused  the  miserable  failure  of  all  the 
efforts  of  natural  religion  is  that  its  founders  have  not 
had  the  courage  to  lay  hold  upon  the  hearts  of  men,  con- 
senting to  no  partition.  They  have  not  understood  the 
imperious  desire  for  immolation  which  lies  in  the  depths 
of  every  soul,  and  souls  have  taken  their  revenge  in  not 
heeding  these  too  lukewarm  lovers. 

Francis  had  given  himself  up  too  completely  not  to 
claim  from  others  an  absolute  self-renunciation.  In  the 
two  years  and  more  since  he  had  quitted  the  world,  the 
reality  and  depth  of  his  conversion  had  shone  out  in  the 
sight  of  all  ;  to  the  scofnngs  of  the  early  days  had  grad- 
ually succeeded,  in  the  minds  of  many  a  feeling  closely 
akin  to  admiration. 

This  feeling  inevitably  provokes  imitation.  A  man  of 
Assisi,  hardly  mentioned  by  the  biographers,  had  at- 
tached himself  to  Francis.  He  was  one  of  those  simple- 
hearted  men  who  find  life  beautiful  enough  so  long  as 
they  can  be  with  him  who  has  kindled  the  divine  spark  1 

1 1  Cel.,  24.  We  must  correct  the  Bollandist  text  :  Inter  quos.  quidam 
de  Assisi  o  puer  ac  simplicem  animum  gerens,  by  :  quidam  de  Assisiopium 
ac  simplicem,  etc.  The  period  at  which  we  have  arrived  is  very  clear 
as  a  whole  :  the  picture  which  the  Three  Companions  give  us  is  true 
with  a  truth  which  forces  conviction  at  first  sight  ;  but  neither  they 
nor  Celano  are  giving  an  official  report.  Later  on  men  desired  to  know 
precisely  in  what  order  the  early  disciples  came,  and  they  tortured 
the  texts  to  find  an  answer.  The  same  course  was  followed  with  regard 
to  the  first  missionary  journeys.  But  on  both  sides  they  came  up 
against  impossibilities  and  contradictions.  What  does  it  matter  whether 
there  were  two,,  three,  or  four  missions  before  the  papal  approbation  ? 
Of  what  consequence  are  the  names  of  those  early  disciples  who  are 


74 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCÏS 


in  tlieir  hearts.  His  arrival  at  Portiuncula  gave  Francis 
a  suggestion  ;  from  that  time  he  dreamed  of  the  possibil- 
ity of  bringing  together  a  few  companions  with  whom 
he  could  carry  on  his  apostolic  mission  in  the  neigh- 
borhood. 

At  Assisi  he  had  often  enjoyed  the  hospitality  of  a 
rich  and  prominent  man  named  Bernardo  di  Qnintavalle,1 
who  took  him  to  sleep  in  his  own  chamber  ;  it  is  easy 
to  see  how  such  an  intimacy  would  favor  confidential 
outpourings.  When  in  the  silence  of  the  early  night  an 
ardent  and  enthusiastic  soul  pours  out  to  you  its  disap- 
pointments, wounds,  dreams,  hopes,  faith,  it  is  difficult 
indeed  not  to  be  carried  along,  especially  when  the  apos- 
tle has  a  secret  ally  in  your  soul,  and  unconsciously 
meets  your  most  secret  aspirations. 

One  day  Bernardo  begged  Francis  to  pass  the  following 
night  with  him,  at  the  same  time  giving  him  to  under- 
stand that  he  was  about  to  make  a  grave  resolution  upon 
which  he  desired  to  consult  him.  The  joy  of  Francis 
was  great  indeed  as  he  divined  his  intentions.  They 
passed  the  night  without  thinking  of  sleep  ;  it  was  a  long 
communion  of  souls.  Bernardo  had  decided  to  distribute 
his  goods  to  the  poor  and  cast  in  his  lot  with  Francis. 
The  latter  desired  his  friend  to  pass  through  a  sort  of 
initiation,  pointing  out  to  him  that  what  he  himself 

entirely  secondary  in  the  history  of  the  Franciscan  movement  ?  All 
these  things  took  place  with  much  more  simplicity  and  spontaneity 
than  is  generally  supposed.  There  is  a  wide  difference  between  the 
plan  of  a  house  drawn  up  by  an  architect. and  a  view  of  the  same  house 
painted  by  an  artist.  The  second,  though  abounding  in  inexactitudes, 
gives  a  more  just  notion  of  the  reality  than  the  plan.  The  same  is  true 
of  the  Franciscan  biographies. 

1 1  Cel.,  24.  Bernard  de  Besse  is  the  first  to  call  him  B.  di  Quinta- 
valle  :  De  laudibus,  fo.  95  h.;  cf.  upon  him  Mark  of  Lisbon,  t.  i., 
second  part,  pp.  68-70  ;  Conform.,  ±7  ;  Fior.,  1,  2,  3,  4,  5.  6,  28  ;  3  Soc, 
27,  30,  39  ;  2  Cel.,  1,  10  ;  2,  19  ;  Bon.,  28;  1  Cel.,  30  ;  Salimbeni,  ann. 
1229,  and  Tribul.  Arch.,  ii..  p.  278,  etc. 


FIRST  YEAR  OF  APOSTOLATE 


practised,  what  he  preached,  was  not  his  own  invention, 
but  that  Jesus  himself  had  expressly  ordained  it  in  his 
word. 

At  early  dawn  they  bent  their  steps  to  the  St.  Nicho- 
las Church,  accompanied  by  another  neophyte  named 
Pietro,  and  there,  after  praying  and  hearing  mass,  Francis 
opened  the  Gospels  that  lay  on  the  altar  and  read  to  his 
companions  the  portion  which  had  decided  his  own  voca- 
tion :  the  words  of  Jesus  sending  forth  his  disciples  on 
their  mission. 

"  Brethren,"  he  added,  "  this  is  our  life  and  our  Eule, 
and  that  of  all  who  may  join  us.  Go  then  and  do  as 
you  have  heard."  1 

The  persistence  with  which  the  Three  Companions 
relate  that  Francis  consulted  the  book  three  times  in 
honor  of  the  Trinity,  and  that  it  opened  of  its  own 
accord  at  the  verses  describing  the  apostolic  life,  leads 
to  the  belief  that  these  passages  became  the  Rule  of  the 
new  association,  if  not  that  very  day  at  least  very  soon 
afterward. 

If  thou  wilt  be  perfect,  go.  sell  that  thou  hast,  and  give  to  the  poor, 
and  thou  shalt  have  treasure  in  heaven,  and  come  and  follow  me. 
•  Jesus  having  called  to  him  the  Twelve,  gave  them  power  and  author- 
ity over  all  devils  and  to  cure  diseases.  And  he  sent  them  to  preach  the 
kingdom  of  God  and  to  heal  the  sick.  And  he  said  unto  them,  Take 
nothing  for  your  journey,  neither  staves,  nor  scrip,  neither  bread, 
neither  money  ;  neither  have  two  coats  apiece.  And  whatsoever  house 
ye  enter  into,  there  abide,  and  thence  depart.  And  whosoever  will  not 
receive  you,  when  ye  go  out  of  that  city  shake  off  the  very  dust  from 
your  feet  for  a  testimony  against  them.  And  they  departed  and  went 
through  the  towns,  preaching  the  gospel  and  healing  everywhere. 

1  1  Cel.,  24  ;  3  Soc.  27,  28,  29  ;  2  Cel.,  1.  10  :  3.  52  ;  Bon.,  28  ;  A. 
SS.,  p.  580.  It  is  evident  that  the  tradition  has  been  worked  over 
here  :  it  soon  came  to  be  desired  to  find  a  miracle  in  the  manner  in 
which  Francis  found  the  passage  for  reading.  The  St.  Nicholas  Church 
is  no  longer  in  existence  ;  it  stood  upon  the  piece  of  ground  now  occu- 
pied by  the  barracks  of  the  gendarmerie  (caroMmeri  reali). 


70 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FKANCIS 


Then  said  Jesus  unto  liis  disciples,  If  any  man  will  come  after  me, 
let  him  deny  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross  and  follow  me.  For  who- 
soever will  save  his  life  shall  lose  it,  and  whosoever  will  lose  his  life 
for  my  sake  shall  find  it.  For  what  is  a  man  profited  if  he  shall  gain 
the  whole  world  and  lose  his  own  soul  ? 1 

At  first  these  verses  were  hardly  more  than  the  official 
Rule  of  the  Order  ;  the  true  Rule  was  Francis  himself  ; 
but  they  had  the  great  merit  of  being  short,  absolute,  of 
promising  perfection,  and  of  being  taken  from  the  Gospel. 

Bernardo  immediately  set  to  work  to  distribute  his 
fortune  among  the  poor.  Full  of  joy,  his  friend  was 
looking  on  at  this  act,  which  had  drawn  together  a  crowd, 
when  a  priest  named  Sylvester,  who  had  formerly  sold 
him  some  stones  for  the  repairs  of  St.  Damian,  seeing  so 
much  money  given  away  to  everyone  who  applied  for  it, 
drew  near  and  said  : 

"  Brother,  you  did  not  pay  me  very  well  for  the  stones 
which  you  bought  of  me." 

Francis  had  too  thoroughly  killed  every  germ  of  av- 
arice in  himself  not  to  be  moved  to  indignation  by  hear- 
ing a  priest  speak  thus.  "  Here,"  he  said,  holding  out 
to  him  a  double  handful  of  coins  which  he  took  from 
Bernardo's  robe,  "  here  ;  are  you  sufficiently  paid  now?  " 

"  Quite  so,"  replied  Sylvester,  somewhat  abashed  by 
the  murmurs  of  the  bystanders.2 

This  picture,  in  which  the  characters  stand  out  so 
strongly,  must  have  taken  strong  hold  upon  the  memory 
of  the  bystanders  :  the  Italians  only  thoroughly  under- 
stand things  which  they  make  a  picture  of.    It  taught 

1  Matt.,  xix.,  21  ;  Luke,  ix.,  1-6  ;  Matt.,  xvi.,  24-26.  The  agreement 
of  tradition  upon  these  passages  is  complete.  3  Soc,  29  ;  2  Cel.,  1,  10  ; 
Bon.,  28;  Spec,  5b.;  Conform.,  87b  2,  47a.  2;  Fior.,  2  ;  Glassberger 
and  the  Chronicle  of  the  xxiv.  generals  reversing  the  order  (Analecta, 
fr.,  t.  ii.,  p.  5)  as  well  as  the  Conformities  in  another  place,  87b,  2. 

2  3  Soc,  30.  Cf.  Anon.  Pt  rus.,  A.  SS.,  p.  581a.  This  scene  is  re- 
ported neither  by  Celano  nor  by  St.  Bonaventura. 


FIRST  TEAR  OF  APOSTOLATE 


77 


them,  better  than  all  Francis's  preachings,  what  manner 
of  men  these  new  friars  would  be. 

The  distribution  finished,  they  went  at  once  to  Portiun- 
cula,  where  Bernardo  and  Pietro  built  for  themselves 
cabins  of  boughs,  and  made  themselves  tunics  like  that 
of  Francis.  They  did  not  differ  much  from  the  garment 
worn  by  the  peasants,  and  were  of  that  brown,  with  its 
infinite  variety  of  shades,  which  the  Italians  call  beast 
color.  One  finds  similar  garments  to-day  among  the 
shepherds  of  the  most  remote  parts  of  the  Apennines. 

A  week  later,  Thursday,  April  23,  1209,1  a  new  dis- 
ciple of  the  name  of  Egidio  presented  himself  before 
Francis.  Of  a  gentle  and  submissive  nature,  he  was  of 
those  who  need  to  lean  on  someone,  but  who,  the  needed 
support  having  been  found  and  tested,  lift  themselves 
sometimes  even  above  it.  The  pure  soul  of  brother 
Egidio,  supported  by  that  of  Francis,  came  to  enjoy  the 
intoxicating  delights  of  contemplation  with  an  unheard-of 
ardor.2 

Here  we  must  be  on  our  guard  against  forcing  the 
authorities,  and  asking  of  them  more  than  they  can  give. 
Later,  when  the  Order  was  definitely  constituted  and 
its  convents  organized,  men  fancied  that  the  past  had 
been  like  the  present,  and  this  error  still  weighs  upon 
the  picture  of  the  origins  of  the  Franciscan  movement. 
The  first  brothers  lived  as  did  the  poor  people  among 
whom  they  so  willingly  moved  ;  Portiuncula  was  their 
favorite  church,  but  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that 
they  sojourned  there  for  any  long  periods.    It  was  their 

1  TMs  date  is  given  in  the  life  of  Brother  Egidio  :  A.  SS. ,  Oct., 
t.  ii.,  p.  572;  Aprilis,  t.  iiL,  p.  220.  It  fits  well  with  the  accounts. 
Through  it,  we  obtain  the  approximate  date  of  the  definitive  conversion 
of  Francis  two  full  years  earlier. 

2  1  Cel.,  25  ;  3  Soc,  23  ;  Bon.  29.  Cf.  Anon.  Perns.,  A.  SS. .  p.  582, 
and  A.  SS. ,  Aprilis,  t.  iii. ,  p.  220  ff . 


78 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


place  of  meeting,  nothing  more.  When  they  set  forth 
they  simply  knew  that  they  should  meet  again  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  modest  chapel.  Their  life  was  that 
of  the  Umbrian  beggars  of  the  present  day,  going  here 
and  there  as  fancy  dictated,  sleeping  in  hay-lofts,  in 
leper  hospitals,  or  under  the  porch  of  some  church.  So 
little  had  they  any  fixed  domicile  that  Egidio,  having  de- 
cided to  join  them,  was  at  considerable  trouble  to  learn 
where  to  find  Francis,  and  accidentally  meeting  him  in 
the  neighborhood  of  Rivo-Torto  1  he  saw  in  the  fact  a  prov- 
idential leading. 

They  went  up  and  down  the  country,  joyfully  sowing 
their  seed.  It  was  the  beginning  of  summer,  the  time 
when  everybody  in  Umbria  is  out  of  doors  mowing  or 
turning  the  grass.  The  customs  of  the  country  have 
changed  but  little.  Walking  in  the  end  of  May  in  the 
fields  about  Florence,  Perugia,  or  Rieti,  one  still  sees, 
at  nightfall,  the  bagpipers  entering  the  fields  as  the  mow- 
ers seat  themselves  upon  the  hay-cocks  for  their  evening 
meal  ;  they  play  a  few  pieces,  and  when  the  train  of  hay- 
makers returns  to  the  village,  followed  by  the  harvest- 
laden  carts,  it  is  they  who  lead  the  procession,  rending 
the  air  with  their  sharpest  strains. 

The  joyous  Penitents  who  loved  to  call  themselves 
Joculatores  Domini,  God's  jongleurs,  no  doubt  often  did. 

1  Spec,  25a:  Qualité?'  dixit  fr, [tri  Egidio  priusquam  esset  receptus  ut 
daret  mardellum  ciudam  pauperi.  Inprimordio  religionis  cum  maneret 
apud  Begum  Tortura  cum  duobusfratribus  quos  tunc  tantumliabelwt.  If 
we  compare  this  passage  with  3  Soc. ,  44,  we  shall  doubtless  arrive  at  the 
conclusion  that  the  account  in  the  Speculum  is  more  satisfactory.  It  is 
in  fact  very  easy  to  understand  the  optical  illusion  by  which  later  on  the 
Portiuncula  was  made  the  scene  of  the  greater  number  of  the  events  of 
St.  Francis's  life,  while  it  would  be  difficult  to  see  why  there  shouldhave 
been  any  attempt  to  surround  Rivo-Torto  with  an  aureola.  The  Fioretti 
say  :  Ando  inucrso  lo  spedale  dei  lebbrosi,  which  confirms  the  indication 
of  Rivo-Torto.     Vita  d Egidio,  §  1. 


FIIIST  TEAR  OF  APOSTOL ATE 


79 


the  same.1  They  did  even  better,  for  not  willing  to  be  a 
charge  to  anyone,  they  passed  a  part  of  the  day  in 
aiding  the  peasants  in  their  field  work."  The  inhabitants 
of  these  districts  are  for  the  most  part  kindly  and  se- 
date; the  friars  soon  gained  their  confidence  by  relating 
to  them  first  their  history  and  then  their  hopes.  They 
worked  and  ate  together  ;  field-hands  and  friars  often  slept 
in  the  same  barn,  and  when  with  the  morrow's  dawn  the 
friars  went  on  their  way,  the  hearts  of  those  they  left  be- 
hind had  been  touched.  They  were  not  yet  converted, 
but  they  knew  that  not  far  away,  over  toward  Assisi,  were 
living  men  who  had  renounced  all  worldly  goods,  and  who, 
consumed  with  zeal,  were  going  up  and  down  preaching 
penitence  and  peace. 

Their  reception  was  very  different  in  the  cities.  If  the 
peasant  of  Central  Italy  is  mild  and  kindly  the  townsfolk 
are  on  a  first  acquaintance  scoffing  and  ill  disposed.  We 
shall  sliortly  see  the  friars  who  went  to  Florence  the  butt 
of  all  sorts  of  persecutions. 

Only  a  few  weeks  had  passed  since  Francis  began  to 
preach,  and  already  his  words  and  acts  were  sounding  an 
irresistible  appeal  in  the  depths  of  many  a  heart.  We 
have  arrived  at  the  most  unique  and  interesting  period  in 
the  history  of  the  Franciscans.  These  first  months  are 
for  their  institution  what  the  first  days  of  spring  are  for 
nature,  days  when  the  almond-tree  blossoms,  bearing 
witness  to  the  mysterious  labor  going  on  in  the  womb  of 
the  earth,  and  heralding  the  flowers  that  will  suddenly 
enamel  the  fields.  At  the  sight  of  these  men  —  bare- 
footed, scantily  clothed,  without  money,  and  yet  so  hap- 
py— men's  minds  were  much  divided.  Some  held  them 
to  be  mad,  others  admired  them,  finding  them  widely 

1  An.  Perus,  A.  SS.,  p.  582.  Cf.  Fior.,  Vita  dl  Egidio,  1  ;  Spec,  124, 
136  ;  2  Cel.,  3,  68  ;  A.  SS. ,  ApHlis,  t.  iii.,  p.  227. 

2  Spec,  34a;  Conform.,  219b,  1;  Ant.fr..  p.  96. 


80 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


different  from  the  vagrant  monks,1  that  plague  of  Chris* 
tendom. 

Sometimes,  however,  the  friars  found  success  not  re- 
sponding to  their  efforts,  the  conversion  of  souls  not  tak- 
ing form  with  enough  rapidity  and  vigor.  To  encourage 
them,  Francis  would  then  confide  to  them  his  visions  and 
his  hopes.  il  I  saw  a  multitude  of  men  coming  toward 
us,  asking  that  they  might  receive  the  habit  of  our  holy 
religion,  and  lo,  the  sound  of  their  footsteps  still  echoes 
in  my  ears.  I  saw  them  coming  from  every  direction, 
filling  all  the  roads." 

Whatever  the  biographies  may  sa}T,  Francis  was  far 
from  foreseeing  the  sorrows  that  were  to  follow  this  rapid 
increase  of  his  Order.  The  maiden  leaning  with  trem- 
bling rapture  on  her  lover's  arm  no  more  dreams  of  the 
pangs  of  motherhood  than  he  thought  of.the  dregs  he  must 
drain  after  quaffing  joyfully  the  generous  wine  of  the 
chalice.2 

Eveiy  prosperous  movement  provokes  opposition  by  the 
very  fact  of  its  prosperity.  The  herbs  of  the  field  have 
their  own  language  for  cursing  the  longer-lived  plants 
that  smother  them  out  ;  one  can  hardly  live  without 
arousing  jealousy;  in  vain  the  new  fraternity  showed 
itself  humble,  it  could  not  escape  this  law. 

When  the  brethren  went  up  to  Assisi  to  beg  from  door 
to  door,  many  refused  to  give  to  them,  reproaching  them 
with  desiring  to  live  on  the  goods  of  others  after  having 
squandered  their  own.  Many  a  time  they  had  barely 
enough  not  to  starve  to  death.  It  would  even  seem  that 
the  clergy  were  not  entirely  without  part  in  this  opposi- 
tion. The  Bishop  of  Assisi  said  to  Francis  one  day  : 
"  Your  way  of  living  without  owning  anything  seems  to 
me  very  harsh  and  difficult."    "  My  lord,"  replied  he,  "  if 

1  The  Gyrovagi.  Tr. 

2  3  Soc*  32-34;  1  Cel.,  27  and  28  ;  Bon.,  31. 


FIRST  YEAR  OF  APOSTOLATE 


81 


we  possessed  property  we  should  have  need  of  arms  for 
its  defence,  for  it  is  the  source  of  quarrels  and  lawsuits, 
and  the  love  of  God  and  of  one's  neighbor  usually  finds 
many  obstacles  therein  ;  this  is  why  we  do  not  desire 
temporal  goods."1 

The  argument  was  unanswerable,  but  Guido  began  to 
rue  the  encouragement  which  he  had  formerly  offered 
the  son  of  Bernardone.  He  was  very  nearly  in  the  situ- 
ation and  consequently  in  the  state  of  mind  of  the  Angli- 
can bishops  when  they  saw  the  organizing  of  the  Sal- 
vation Army.  It  was  not  exactly  hostility,  but  a  distrust 
which  was  all  the  deeper  for  hardly  daring  to  show  itself. 
The  only  counsel  which  the  bishop  could  give  Francis 
was  to  come  into  the  ranks  of  the  clergy,  or,  if  asceticism 
attracted  him,  to  join  some  already  existing  monastic 
order.2 

- 

1  3  Soc,  35.    Cf.  Anon.  Perns.  ;  A.  SS.,  p.  584. 

2  Later  on,  naturally,  it  "was  desired  that  Francis  should  have  had  no 
better  supporter  than  Guido;  some  have  even  made  him  out  to  be 
his  spiritual  director  (St.  Francois,  Plon,  p.  24 ;  !  We  have  an  in- 
direct but  unexceptionable  proof  of  the  reserve  with  which  these 
pious  traditions  must  be  accepted  ;  Francis  did  not  even  tell  his  bishop 
{paler  et  dominas  ahimarum,  3  Soc,  29)  of  his  design  of  having  his  Rule 
approved  by  the  pope.  This  is  the  more  striking  because  the  bishop 
would  have  been  his  natural  advocate  at  the  court  of  Rome,  and  be- 
cause in  the  abseuce  of  any  other  reason  the  most  elementary  politeness 
required  that  he  should  have  been  informed.  Add  to  this  that  bishops 
in  Italy  are  not,  as  elsewhere, / 'u nctionaries  approached  with  difficulty  by 
the  common  run  of  mortals.  Almost  every  village  in  Umbria  has  its 
bishop,  so  that  their  importance  is  hardly  greater  than  that  of  the  cuvé 
of  a  French  canton. 

Furthermore,  several  pontifical  documents  throw  a  sombre  light  on 
Guido's  character.  In  a  chapter  of  the  decretals  of  Honorius  III. 
(Quinta  compil.,  lib.  ii.,  tit.  iii.,  cap.  i.)  is  given  a  complaint 
against  this  bishop,  brought  before  the  curia  by  the  Crucigeri  of  the  hos- 
pital San  Salvatore  delle  Pareti  (suburbs  of  Assisi),  of  having  maltreated 
two  of  their  number,  and  having  stolen  a  part  of  the  wine  belonging  to 
the  convent  :  pro  eo  quod  Aegidium  presbyter um,  et  fra.tr -em.  eorem  con- 
ver  sum  violentas  manus  injecerat  .  .  .  adjiciens  quod  idem  kospitcde 
6 


82 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


If  the  bishop's  perplexities  were  great,  those  of  Fran- 
cis were  hardly  less  so.  He  was  too  acute  not  to  foresee 
the  conflict  that  threatened  to  break  out  between  the 
friars  and  the  clergy.  He  saw  that  the  enemies  of  the 
priests  praised  him  and  his  companions  beyond  measure 
simply  to  set  off  their  poverty  against  the  avarice  and 
wealth  of  the  ecclesiastics,  yet  he  felt  himself  urged  on 
from  within  to  continue  his  work,  and  could  well  have 
exclaimed  with  the  apostle,  "  Woe  is  me  if  I  preach  not 
the  gospel  !  "  On  the  other  hand,  the  families  of  the  Peni- 
tents could  not  forgive  them  for  having  distributed  their 
goods  among  the  poor,  and  attacks  came  from  this  direc- 
tion with  all  the  bitter  language  and  the  deep  hatred 
natural  to  disappointed  heirs.  From  this  point  of  view 
the  brotherhood  appeared  as  a  menace  to  families,  and 
m  any  parents  trembled  lest  their  sons  should  join  it. 
Whether  the  friars  would  or  no,  they  were  an  unending 
subject  of  interest  to  the  whole  city.  Evil  rumors,  plenti- 
fully spread  abroad  against  them,  simply  defeated  them- 
selves ;  flying  from  mouth  to  mouth  they  speedily  found 
contradictors  who  had  no  difficulty  in  showing  their 
absurdity.  All  this  indirectly  served  their  cause  and 
gained  to  their  side  those  hearts,  more  numerous  than  is 
generally  believed,  who  find  the  defence  of  the  perse- 
cuted a  necessity. 

As  to  the  clergy,  they  could  not  but  feel  a  profound  clis- 

quadam  cini  quantitate  fuerat  per  eumdem  episcopum  spoliatum.  Honorii 
opera,  Horoy's  edition,  t.  i.,  col.  200  ff.  Cf.  Potthast,  7746.  The  men- 
tion of  the  hospital  de  Pariete  proves  beyond  question  that  the  Bishop 
of  Assisi  is  here  concerned  and  not  the  Bishop  of  Osimo,  as  some  critics 

have  suggested. 

Another  document  shows  him  at  strife  with  the  Benedictines  of  Mount 
Suhasio  (the  very  ones  who  afterward  gave  Portiuncula  to  Francis),  and 
Honorius  III.  found  the  bishop  in  the  wrong  :  Bull  Conqnerente  œco- 
nomo  monnsterii  ap.  Richter,  Corpus  juris  canonid.  Leipzig,  1839,  4to, 
Horoy,  loc.  cit.,  t.  i.,  col.  103;  Potthast,  7728. 


FIRST  YEAR  OF  AP03TOLATE 


S3 


trust  of  these  lay  converters,  who,  though  they  aroused  the 
hatred  of  some  interested  persons,  awakened  in  more  pious 
souls  first  astonishment  and  then  admiration.  Suddenly 
to  see  men  without  title  or  diploma  succeed  brilliantly  in 
the  mission  which  has  been  officially  confided  to  our- 
selves, and  in  which  we  have  made  pitiful  shipwreck,  is 
cruel  torture.  Have  we  not  seen  generals  who  preferred 
to  lose  a  battle  rather  than  gain  it  with  the  aid  of  guer- 
rillas? 

This  covert  opposition  has  left  no  characteristic  traces 
in  the  biographies  of  St.  Francis.  It  is  not  to  be  won- 
dered at  ;  Thomas  of  Celano,  even  if  he  had  had  infor- 
mation of  this  matter,  would  have  been  wanting  in  tact 
to  make  use  of  it.  The  clergy,  for  that  matter,  possess  a 
thousand  means  of  working  upon  public  opinion  without 
ceasing  to  show  a  religious  interest  in  those  whom  they 
detest. 

But  the  more  St.  Francis  shall  find  himself  in  contra- 
diction with  the  clergy  of  his  time,  the  more  he  will  be- 
lieve himself  the  obedient  son  of  the  Church.  Confound- 
ing the  gospel  with  the  teaching  of  the  Church,  he  will 
for  a  good  while  border  upon  heresy,  but  without  ever 
falling  into  it.  Happy  simplicity,  thanks  to  which  he 
had  never  to  take  the  attitude  of  revolt  ! 

It  was  five  years  since,  a  convalescent  leaning  upon 
his  staff,  he  had  felt  himself  taken  possession  of  by  a 
loathing  of  material  pleasures.  From  that  time  every 
one  of  his  days  had  been  marked  by  a  step  in  ad- 
vance. 

It  was  again  the  spring-time.  Perfectly  happy,  he 
felt  himself  more  and  more  impelled  to  bring  others  to 
share  his  happiness  and  to  proclaim  in  the  four  corners 
of  the  world  how  he  had  attained  it.  He  resolved, 
therefore,  to  undertake  a  new  mission.  A  few  days  were 
spent  in  preparing  for  it.    The  Three  Companions  have 


84 


LIFE  OF  ST.  F1ÏANCIS 


preserved  for  us  the  directions  which  he  gave  to  his  dis- 
ciples : 

"  Let  ns  consider  that  God  in  Lis  goodness  lias  not  called  ns  merely  for 
onr  own  salvation,  but  also  for  that  of  many  men,  that  we  may  go  through 
all  the  world  exhorting  men,  more  by  our  example  than  by  our  words, 
to  repent  of  their  sins  and  bear  the  commandments  in  mind.  Be  not 
fearful  on  the  ground  that  we  appear  little  and  ignorant,  but  simply 
and  without  disquietude  preach  repentance.  Have  faith  in  God,  who 
has  overcome  the  world,  that  his  Spirit  will  speak  in  you  and  by  you, 
exhorting  men  to  be  converted  and  keep  his  commandments. 

You  will  find  men  full  of  faith,  gentleness,  and  goodness,  who  will 
receive  you  and  your  words  with  joy  ;  but  you  will  find  others,  and  in 
greater  numbers,  faithless,  proud,  blasphemers,  who  will  speak  evil  of 
you,  resisting  you  and  your  words.  Be  resolute,  then,  to  endure  every- 
thing with  patience  and  humility/' 

Hearing  this,  the  brethren  began  to  be  agitated.  St.  Francis  said 
to  them  :  "  Have  no  fear,  for  very  soon  many  nobles  and  learned  men 
will  come  to  you  ;  they  will  be  with  you  preaching  to  kings  and  princes 
and  to  a  multitude  of  peoples.  Many  will  be  converted  to  the  Lord, 
all  over  the  world,  who  will  multiply  and  increase  his  family." 

After  he  had  thus  spoken  he  blessed  them,  saying  to 
each  one  the  word  which  was  in  the  future  to  be  his  su- 
preme consolation  : 

"  My  brother,  commit  yourself  to  God  with  all  your  cares,  and  he 
will  care  for  you." 

Then  the  men  of  God  departed,  faithfully  observing  his  instructions, 
and  when  they  found  a  church  or  a  cross  they  bowed  in  adoration,  say- 
ing with  devotion,  AVe  adore  thee,  O  Christ,  and  we  bless  thee  here 
and  in  all  churches  in  the  whole  world,  for  by  thy  holy  cross  thou  hast 
ransomed  the  world."  In  fact  they  believed  that  they  had  found  a 
holy  place  wherever  they  found  a  church  or  a  cross. 

Some  listened  willingly,  others  scoffed,  the  greater  number  over- 
whelmed them  with  questions.  Whence  come  you?"  "  Of  what  order 
are  you  ?  "  And  they,  though  sometimes  it  was  wearisome  to  answer, 
said  simply,  "  We  are  penitents,  natives  of  the  city  of  Assisi."  1 

This  freshness  and  poetry  will  not  be  found  in  the 
later  missions.    Here  the  river  is  still  itself,  and  if  it 

'3  Soc,  36  and  37.  Cf.  Anon.  Perm.  ap.}  A.  SS..  p.  585  ;  Test.  B. 
Francisa. 


FIRST  YEAR  OF  APOSTOLATE 


'85 


knows  toward  what  sea  it  is  hastening,  it  knows  nothing 
of  the  streams,  more  or  less  turbid,  which  shall  disturb 
its  limpidity,  nor  the  dykes  and  the  straightenings  to 
which  it  will  have  to  submit. 

A  long  account  by  the  Three  Companions  gives  us  a 
picture  from  life  of  these  first  essays  at  preaching  : 

Many  men  took  the  friars  for  knaves  or  madmen  and  refused  to  receive 
them  into  their  houses  for  fear  of  being  robbed.  So  in  many  places, 
after  having  undergone  all  sorts  of  bad  usage,  they  could  find  no  other 
refuge  for  the  night  than  the  porticos  of  churches  or  houses.  There 
were  at  that  time  two  brethren  who  went  to  Florence.  They  begged  all 
through  the  city  but  could  find  no  shelter.  Coming  to  a  house  which 
had  a  portico  and  under  the  portico  a  bench,  they  said  to  one  another, 
"We  shall  be  very  comfortable  here  for  the  night."'  As  the  mistress 
of  the  house  refused  to  let  them  enter,  they  humbly  asked  her  per- 
mission to  sleep  upon  the  bench. 

She  was  about  to  grant  them  permission  when  her  husband  appeared. 
''Why  have  you  permitted  these  lewd  fellows  to  stay  under  our  por- 
tico ?  "  he  asked.  The  woman  replied  that  she  had  refused  to  receive 
them  into  the  house,  but  had  given  them  permission  to  sleep  under  the 
portico  where  there  was  nothing  for  them  to  steal  but  the  bench. 

The  cold  was  very  sharp  ;  but  taking  them  for  thieves  no  one  gave 
them  any  covering. 

As  for  them,  after  having  enjoyed  on  their  bench  no  more  sleep 
than  was  necessary,  warmed  only  by  divine  warmth,  and  having  for 
covering  only  their  Lady  Poverty,  in  the  early  dawn  they  went  to  the 
church  to  hear  mass. 

The  lady  went  also  on  her  part,  and  seeing  the  friars  devoutly  pray- 
ing she  said  to  herself  :  "If  these  men  were  rascals  and  thieves  as  my 
husband  said,  they  would  not  remain  thus  in  prayer."  And  while  she 
was  making  these  reflections  behold  a  man  of  the  name  of  Giiido  was 
giving  alms  to  the  poor  in  the  church.  Coming  to  the  friars  he  would 
have  given  a  piece  of  money  tp  them  as  to  the  others,  but  they  refused 
his  money  and  would  not  receive  it.  ''  Why,"  he  asked.  "  since  you  are 
poor,  will  you  not  accept  like  the  others  ?"  "  It  is  true  that  we  are  poor," 
replied  Brother  Bernardo,  "  but  poverty  does  not  weigh  upon  us  as  upon 
other  poor  people  ;  for  by  the  grace  of  God,  whose  will  we  are  accom- 
plishing, we  have  voluntarily  become  poor.  " 

Much  amazed,  he  asked  them  if  they  had  ever  had  anything,  and 
learned  that  they  had  possessed  much,  but  that  for  the  love  of  God  they 
had  given  everything  away.    .    .    .    The  lady,  seeing  that  the  friars 


86 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


had  refused  the  alms,  drew  near  to  them  and  said  that  she  would  gladly 
receive  them  into  her  house  if  they  would  be  pleased  to  lodge  there. 
"  May  the  Lord  recompense  to  you  your  good  will,"  replied  the  friars, 
humbly. 

But  Guido,  learning  that  they  had  not  been  able  to  find  a  shelter, 
took  them  to  his  own  house,  saving,  "  Here  is  a  refuge  prepared  for  you 
by  the  Lord  ;  remain  in  it  as  long  as  you  desire." 

As  for  them,  they  gave  thanks  to  God  and  spent  several  days  with 
.him,  preaching  the  fear  of  the  Lord  by  word  and  example,  so  that  in 
the  end  he  made  large  distributions  to  the  poor. 

Well  treated  by  him,  they  were  despised  by  others.  Many  men, 
great  and  small,  attacked  and  insulted  them,  sometimes  going  so  far  as 
to  tear  off  their  clothing  ;  but  though  despoiled  of  their  only  tunic,  they 
would  not  ask  for  its  restitution.  If,  moved  to  pity,  men  gave  back  to 
them  what  they  had  taken  away,  they  accepted  it  cheerfully. 

There  were  those  who  threw  mud  upon  them,  others  who  put  dice 
into  their  hands  and  invited  them  to  play,  and  others  clutching  them 
by  the  cowl  made  them  drag  them  along  thus.  But  seeing  that  ti  e 
friars  were  always  full  of  joy  in  the  midst  of  their  tribulations,  that  they 
neither  received  nor  carried  money,  and  that  by  their  love  for  one  an- 
other they  made  themselves  known  as  true  disciples  of  the  Lord,  many 
of  them  felt  themselves  reproved  in  their  hearts  and  came  asking  par- 
don for  the  offences  which  they  had  committed.  They,  pardoning 
them  with  all  their  heart,  said,  "  The  Lord  forgive  you,"  and  gave  them 
pious  counsels  for  the  salvation  of  their  souls. 

A  translation  can  but  imperfectly  give  all  the  repressed 
emotion,  the  candid  simplicity,  the  modest  joy,  the  fer- 
vent love  which  breathe  in  the  faulty  Latin  of  the  Three 
Companions.  Yet  these  scattered  friars  sighed  after  the 
home-coming  and  the  long  conversations  with  their  spir- 
itual father  in  the  tranquil  forests  of  the  suburbs  of 
Assisi.  Friendship  among  men,  when  it  overpasses  a 
certain  limit,  has  something  deep,  high,  ideal,  infinitely 
sweet,  to  which  no  other  friendship  attains.  There 
was  no  woman  in  the  Upper  Chamber  when,  on  the  last 
evening  of  his  life,  Jesus  communed  with  his  disci- 
ples and  invited  the  world  to  the  eternal  marriage 
supper. 

Francis,  above  all,  was  impatient  to  see  his  young 


FIRST  YEAH  OF  APOSTOLATE 


87 


family  once  more.  They  all  arrived  at  Portiuncula  al- 
most at  the  same  time,  having  already,  before  reaching  it, 
forgotten  the  torments  they  had  endured,  thinking  only 
of  the  joy  of  the  meeting.1 


1  3  Soc,  38-41. 


CHAPTEE  VI 


ST.  FRANCIS  AND  INNOCENT  III 
Summer  1210  1 

Seeing  the  number  of  his  friars  daily  increasing,  Fran- 
cis decided  to  write  the  Kule  of  the  Order  and  go  to 
Rome  to  procure  its  approval  by  the  Pope. 

This  resolution  was  not  lightly  taken.  It  would  be  a 
mistake  in  fact  to  take  Francis  for  one  of  those  in- 
spired ones  who  rush  into  action  upon  the  strength 
of  .unexpected  revelations,  and,  thanks  to  their  faith 

1  The  date  usually  fixed  for  the  approval  of  the  Rule  by  Innocent  III. 
is  the  month  of  August,  1209.  The  Bollandists  had  thought  themselves 
able  to  infer  it  from  the  account  where  Thomas  of  Celano  (1  Cel.,  43) 
refers  to  the  passage  through  Umbria  of  the  Emperor  Otho  IV.,  on  his 
way  to  be  crowned  at  Rome  (October  4,  1209).  Upon  this  journey  see 
Bohmer-Ficker,  liegestd  Imperii.  Dei  Iiegesten  des  Kaiserreichs  unter  Phi- 
lipp,  Otto  IV.,  etc.,  Insbruck,  1879,  4to,  pp.  96  and  97.  As  this  account 
follows  that  of  the  approval,  they  conclude  that  the  latter  was  earlier. 
But  Thomas  of  Celano  puts  this  account  there  because  the  context  led 
up  to  it,  and  not  in  order  to  fix  its  date.  Everything  leads  to  the  belief 
that  the  Brothers  retired  (recolligebnt,  1  Cel. ,  42)  to  Rivo-Torto  before  and 
after  their  journey  to  Rome.  Besides,  the  time  between  April  23d  and 
the  middle  of  August,  1209,  is  much  too  short  for  all  that  the  biographers 
tell  us  about  the  life  of  the  Brothers  before  their  visit  to  Innocent  III. 
The  mission  to  Florence  took  place  in  winter,  or  at  least  in  a  very  cold 
month.  But  the  decisive  argument  is  that  Innocent  III.  quitted  Rome 
toward  the  end  of  May,  1209,  and  went  to  Viterbo,  returning  only  to 
crown  Otho,  October  4th  (Potthast,  3727-3803).  It  is  therefore  absolute- 
ly necessary  to  postpone  to  the  summer  of  1210  the  visit  of  the  Penitents 
to  the  pope.    This  is  also  the  date  which  Wadding  arrives  at. 


ST.  FRANCIS  AND  INNOCENT  III 


89 


in  their  own  infallibility,  overawe  the  multitude.  On 
the  contrary,  he  was  filled  with  a  real  humility,  and  if 
he  believed  that  God  reveals  himself  in  prayer,  he  never 
for  that  absolved  himself  from  the  duty  of  reflection  nor 
even  from  reconsidering  his  decisions.  St.  Bonaventura 
does  him  great  wrong  in  picturing  the  greater  number  of 
his  important  resolutions  as  taken  in  consequence  of 
dreams  ;  this  is  to  rob  his  life  of  its  profound  originality, 
his  sanctity  of  its  choicest  blossom.  He  was  of  those 
who  struggle,  and,  to  use  one  of  the  noblest  expressions 
of  the  Bible,  of  those  who  by  their  perseverance  conquer, 
their  souls.  Thus  we  shall  see  him  continually  retouch- 
ing the  Bale  of  his  institute,  unceasingly  revising  it  down 
to  the  last  moment,  according  as  the  growth  of  the  Order 
and  experience  of  the  human  heart  suggested  to  him 
modifications  of  it. 1 

The  first  Bule  which  he  submitted  to  Borne  has  not 
come  down  to  us  ;  we  only  know  that  it  was  extremely 
simple,  and  composed  especially  of  passages  from  the 
Gospels.  It  was  doubtless  only  the  repetition  of  those 
verses  which  Francis  had  read  to  his  first  companions, 
with  a  few  precepts  about  manual  labor  and  the  occupa- 
tions of  the  neAV  brethren.2 

1  3  Soc. .  85. 

2  1  Cel.,  32  ;  3  Soc  ,  51  ;  Bon..  34.  Cf.  Test.  B.  Fr.  M.  K.  Miiller 
of  Halle,  in  Ms  Anjunge,  has  made  a  very  remarkable  study  of  the 
Rule  of  1221,  whence  lie  deduces  an  earlier  Rule,  which  he  believes  to 
be  that  of  1209  (1210).  For  once  I  find  myself  entirely  in  accord  with 
him,  except  that  the  Rule  thus  reconstructed  (Vide  Anfange.  pp.  14-25, 
184-188)  appears  to  me  to  be  not  that  of  1210,  which  was  xerj  short,  but 
another,  drawn  up  between  1210  and  1221.  The  plurcs  régulas  fecit  of 
the  3  Soc,  35,  authorizes  us  to  believe  that  he  made  perhaps  as  many  as 
four — 1st,  1210,  very  short,  containing  little  more  than  the  three  passages 
of  the  vocation  ;  2d,  1217  (?),  substantially  that  proposed  by  M.  Miil- 
ler ;  3d,  1221,  that  of  which  we  shall  speak  at  length  farther  on  ;  4th, 
1226,  the  Will,  which  if  not  a  Rule  is  at  least  an  appendix  to  the  Rule. 
If  from  1221-1226  he  had  time  to  make  two  Rules  and  the  Will,  as  is 


90 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


It  will  be  well  to  pause  here  and  consider  the  brethren 
who  are  about  to  set  out  for  Rome.  The  biographies  are 
in  agreement  as  to  their  number  ;  they  were  twelve,  in- 
cluding Francis  ;  but  the  moment  they  undertake  to  give 
a  name  to  each  one  of  them  difficulties  begin  to  arise,  and 
it  is  only  by  some  exegetical  sleight  of  hand  that  they 
can  claim  to  have  reconciled  the  various  documents. 
The  table  given  below 1  briefly  shows  these  difficulties. 
The  question  took  on  some  importance  when  in  the  four- 
teenth century  men  undertook  to  show  an  exact  conform- 
ity between  the  life  of  St.  Francis  and  that  of  Jesus.  It 
is  without  interest  to  us.  The  profiles  of  two  or  three 
of  these  brethren  stand  out  very  clearly  in  the  picture  of 
the  origins  of  the  Order  ;  others  remind  one  of  the  pict- 

universally  admitted,  there  is  nothing  surprising  in  his  having  made 
two  from  1210-1221.  Perhaps  we  have  a  fragment  of  that  of  1217  in 
the  regulation  of  hermitages.    Vide  below,  p.  109. 

1  Thomas  of  Celano's  list.  1,  Quidam  pium  gerens  animum  ;  2,  Ber- 
nardus  ;  3,  Vir  alter;  4,  JEgidius  ;  5,  JJnus  alius  appositus;  6, 
PhUippus  ;  7,  Alius  bonus  vir  ;  8,  9,  10,  11,  Quatuor  boni  et  idonei  tin. 
1  Cel.,  24,  25,  29,  31.  The  Rinaldi-Amoni  text  says  nothing  of  the  last 
four.  Three  Companions:  1,  Bernavdus  ;  2,  Petrus  ;  3,  JEgidius  ;  4, 
Sabbatinus  ;  5,  Moritus  ;  Johan  nes  Capella  ;  7,  8,  9,  10,  11,  Disciples  re- 
ceived by  the  brethren  in  their  missions.  3  Soc,  33,  35,  41,  46,  52.  Bon- 
aventura  :  1,  Berneirdus  ;  2,  .  .  .  3,  JEgidius  ;  4,  5,  .  .  .  6,  Silvestro  ; 
7,  Aliusbonus  viri  ;  8,  9,  10,  11,  Quatuor  xiri  honesti.  Bon  ,  28,  29,  30, 
31,  33.  The  Fioretti,  while  insisting  on  the  importance  of  the  twelve 
Franciscan  apostles,  cite  only  six  in  their  list  :  Giovanni  di  Cajjella,  Egidio, 
Philip,  Silvestro.  Bernardo,  and  Rnfino.  Fior.,  1.  We  must  go  to  the 
Conformities  to  find  the  traditional  list,  f  °  46b  1:1,  Bernardus  de  Quin- 
tavalle  ;  2,  Petrus  Ghatanii ;  3,  Egidius  ;  4,  Sabeitinus  ;  5,  Moricus  ;  6, 
Johannes  de  Capella  ;  7,  Pldlippus  Longus  ;  8,  Johannes  de  Seincto  Con- 
stant"to  ;  9,  Barbarus  ;  10,  Bernardus  de  Cledridante  (sic)  ;  11,  Angélus 
Tancredi ;  12,  Sylvester.  As  will  be  seen,  in  the  last  two  documents 
twelve  disciples  are  in  question,  while  in  the  preceding  ones  there  are 
only  eleven.  This  is  enough  to  show  a  dogmatic  purpose.  This  list 
reappears  exactly  in  the  Speculum,  with  the  sole  difference  that  Fran- 
ck being  there  included  Angelo  di  Tancrede  is  the  twelfth  brother  and 
Silvestro  disappears.    Spec,  87a. 


ST. 


FRANCIS  AND  INXOCEXT  III 


91 


ures  of  primitive  Umbriau  masters,  where  the  figures  of 
the  background  have  a  modest  and  tender  grace,  but  no 
shadow  of  personality.  The  first  Franciscans  had  all  the 
virtues,  including  the  one  which  is  nearly  always  wanting, 
willingness  to  remain  unknown. 

In  the  Lower  Church  of  Assisi  there  is  an  ancient  fres- 
co representing  five  of  the  companions  of  St.  Francis. 
Above  them  is  a  Madonna  by  Cimabue,  upon  which  they 
are  gazing  with  all  their  soul.  It  would  be  more  true  if 
St.  Francis  were  there  in  the  place  of  the  Madonna  ;  one 
is  always  changed  into  the  image  of  what  one  admires, 
and  they  resemble  their  master  and  one  another.1  To 
attempt  to  give  them  a  name  is  to  make  a  sort  of  psycho- 
logical error  and  become  guilty  of  infidelity  to  their 
memory  ;  the  only  name  they  would  have  desired  is  that 
of  their  father.  His  love  changed  their  hearts  and  shed 
over  their  whole  persons  a  radiance  of  light  and  joy. 
These  are  the  true  personages  of  the  Fioretti,  the  men 
who  brought  peace  to  cities,  awakened  consciences, 
changed  hearts,  conversed  with  birds,  tamed  wolves. 
Of  them  one  may  truly  say  :  "  Having  nothing,  yet 
possessing  all  things"  (Nihil  Jiabentes,  omnia  possidentis). 

They  quitted  Portiuncula  full  of  joy  and  confidence. 
Francis  was  too  much  absorbed  in -thought  not  to  desire 
to  place  in  other  hands  the  direction  of  the  little  com- 
pany. 

"  Let  us  choose,"  he  said,  "one  from  among  ourselves  to  guide  us, 
and  let  him  he  to  us  as  the  vicar  of  Jesus  Christ.  Wherever  it  may- 
please  him  to  go  we  will  go,  and  when  he  may  wish  to  stop  anywhere 
to  sleep  there  we  will  stop."  They  chose  Brother  Bernardo  and  did  as 
Francis  had  said.  They  went  on  full  of  joy,  and  all  their  conversations 
had  for  their  object  only  the  glory  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  their 
souls. 

1  According  to  tradition,  the  five  compagni  del  Santo  buried  there  be- 
side their  muster  are  Bernardo,  Silvestro,  William  (an  Englishman), 
Eletto.  and  Valentino  (?). 


92 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Their  journey  was^ happily  accomplished.  Everywhere  the}-  found 
kindly  souls  who  sheltered  them,  and  they  felt  beyond  a  doubt  that  God 
was  taking  care  of  them.1 

Francis's  thoughts  were  all  fixed  upon  the  purpose  of 
their  journey  ;  he  thought  of  it  clay  and  night,  and  natu- 
rally interpreted  his  dreams  with  reference  to  it.  One 
time,  in  his  dream,  he  saw  himself  walking  along  a  road 
beside  which  was  a  gigantic  and  wonderfully  beautiful 
tree.  And,  behold,  while  he  looked  upon  it,  filled  with 
wonder,  he  felt  himself  become  so  tall  that  he  could 
touch  the  boughs,  and  at  the  same  time  the  tree  bent 
down  its  branches  to  him.2  He  awoke  full  of  joy,  sure 
of  a  gracious  reception  by  the  sovereign  pontiff. 

His  hopes  were  to  be  somewhat  blighted.  Innocent 
III.  had  now  for  twelve  years  occupied  the  throne  of  St. 
Peter.  Still  young,  energetic,  resolute,  he  enjoyed  that 
superfluity  of  authority  given  by  success.  Coming  after 
the  feeble  Celestine  III.,  he  had  been  able  in  a  few  years 
to  reconquer  the  temporal  domain  of  the  Church,  and  so  to 
improve  the  papal  influence  as  almost  to  realize  the  theo- 
cratic dreams  of  Gregory  VII.  He  had  seen  King  Pedro 
of  Aragon  declaring  himself  his  vassal  and  laying  his 
crown  upon  the  tomb  of  the  apostles,  that  he  might  take 
it  back  at  his  hands.  At  the  other  end  of  Europe,  John 
Lackland  had  been  obliged  to  receive  his  crown  from  a 
legate  after  having  sworn  homage,  fealty,  and  an  annual 
tribute  to  the  Holy  See.  Preaching  union  to  the  cities 
and  republics  of  Italy,  causing  the  cry  Italia  !  Italia  ! 
to  resound  like  the  shout  of  a  trumpet,  he  was  the  natural 
representative  of  the  national  awakening,  and  appeared  to 
be  in  some  sort  the  suzerain  of  the  emperor,  as  he  was 
already  that  of  other  kings.  Finally,  by  his  efforts  to 
purify  the  Church,  by  his  indomitable  firmness  in  def end- 

1  3  Soc,  46  ;  1  Cel.,  32  ;  Bon.,  34. 

2  1  Cel.,  33  ;  3  Soc,  53  ;  Bon.,  35. 


ST.  FKANCIS  AND  INNOCENT  III 


93 


ing  morality  and  law  in  the  affair  of  Irjgelburge  and  in 
many  others,  he  was  gaining  a  moral  strength  which  in 
times  so  disquieted  was  all  the  more  powerful  for  being 
so  rare. 

But  this  incomparable  power  had  its  hidden  dangers. 
Occupied  with  defending  the  prerogatives  of  the  Holy 
See,  Innocent  came  to  forget  that  the  Church  does  not 
exist  for  herself,  that  her  supremacy  is  only  a  transitory 
means  ;  and  one  part  of  his  pontificate  may  be  likened 
to  wars,  legitimate  in  the  beginning,  in  which  the  conque- 
ror keeps  on  with  depredations  and  massacres  for  no 
reason,  except  that  he  is  intoxicated  with  blood  and  suc- 
cess. 

And  so  Rome,  which  canonized  the  petty  Celestine  V., 
refused  this  supreme  consecration  to  the  glorious  Inno- 
cent III.  With  exquisite  tact  she  perceived  that  he  was 
rather  king  than  priest,  rather  pope  than  saint. 

AYhen  he  suppressed  ecclesiastical  disorders  it  was  less 
for  love  of  good  than  for  hatred  of  evil  ;  it  was  the  judge 
who  condemns  or  threatens,  himself  always  supported 
by  the  law,  not  the  father  who  weeps  his  son's  offence. 
This  priest  did  not  comprehend  the  great  movement  of 
his  age — the  awakening  of  love,  of  poetry,  of  liberty.  I 
have  already  said  that  at  the  opening  of  the  thirteenth 
century  the  Middle  Age  was  twenty  years  old.  Innocent 
III.  undertook  to  treat  it  as  if  it  were  only  fifteen.  Pos- 
sessed by  his  civil  and  religious  dogmas  as  others  are  by 
their  educational  doctrines,  he  never  suspected  the  un- 
satisfied longings,  the  dreams,  unreasoning  perhaps,  but- 
beneficent  and  divine,  that  were  dumbly  stirring  in  the 
depths  of  men's  hearts.  He  was  a  believer,  although 
certain  sayings  of  the  historians 1  open  the  door  to  some 

1  St.  Ludgarde  (1182-1246)  sees  him  condemned  to  Purgatory  till  the 
Last  Judgment.  Life  of  this  saint  by  Thomas  of  Catimpré  in  Surius  : 
Vita  SS.  (1618),  vi..  215-226. 


94 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


doubts  on  this  point,  but  lie  drew  his  religion  rather  from 
the  Old  Testament  than  from  the  New,  and  if  he  often 
thought  of  Moses,  the  leader  of  his  people,  nothing  re- 
minded him  of  Jesus,  the  shepherd  of  souls.  One  cannot 
be  everything  ;  a  choice  intelligence,  an  iron  will 1  are 
a  sufficient  portion  even  for  a  priest-god  ;  he  lacked  love. 
The  death  of  this  pontiff,  great  among  the  great  ones, 
was  destined  to  be  saluted  with  songs  of  joy.2 

His  reception  of  Francis  furnished  to  Giotto,  the 
friend  of  Dante,  one  of  his  most  striking  frescos  ;  the 
pope,  seated  on  his  throne,  turns  abruptly  toward  Francis. 
He  frowns,  for  he  does  not  understand,  and  yet  he  feels 
a  strange  power  in  this  mean  and  despised  man,  vilis  et 
despectus  ;  he  makes  a  real  but  futile  effort  to  compre- 
hend, and  now  I  see  in  this  pope,  who  lived  upon  lemons,3 
something  that  recalls  another  choice  mind,  theocratic 
like  his  own,  sacrificed  like  him  to  his  work  :  Calvin. 
One  might  think  that  the  painter  had  touched  his  lips  to 
the  Calabrian  Seer's  cup,  and  that  in  the  attitude  of  these 
two  men  he  sought  to  symbolize  a  meeting  of  represent- 
atives of  the  two  ages  of  humanity,  that  of  Law  and  that 
of  Love.4 

A  surprise  awaited  the  pilgrims  on  their  arrival  in 

1  Vir  clari  ingenii,  magnet  probiteitis  et  sapientiee,  aid  nullus  secundus 
tempore  mo  :  Rigordus,  de  gestis  Philippi  Augusti  in  Duchesne.  His- 
torié? Francorum  scriptores  coœtauei,  t.  v.,  p.  60. — Nec  similem  sui 
scientia,  facunelia,  decretorum  et  bejum  perititia.  strenuitate,  judiciorum 
nec  adliuc  visits  est  habere  sequentem.  Cf.  Mencken,  Script,  rer.  Sax., 
Leipzig,  1728,  t.  iii.,  p.  252.  Innocent-ins,  qui  rere  stupor  mundi  erat 
et  immutator  seeculi.    Cotton,  Hist.  Anglicana,  Luard,  1859,  p.  107. 

2  Ciijus  finis  lœtitiem  potius  quam  tristitiam  generavit  subject's.  Al- 
beric  delle  Tre  Fonfane.    Leibnitz,  Accessiones  historical,  t.  ii.,  p.  492. 

3  Decidit  in  acittam  (febrem)  quam  cum  multis  eliebus  fovisset  nec  a 
citris  quibus  in  magna  quantitatœ  et  ex  consuetudine  lescebatur  .  .  . 
minime  abstiner i  t  .  .  .  ad  ultimum  in  lethargia  prolapsus  nteim, 
finivit.    Alberic  delle  Tre  Fontane,  loc.  cit. 

J  Fresco  in  the  great  nave  of  the  Upper  Church  of  Assisi. 


ST.  FRANCIS  AXD  IXXOCENT  III 


Go 


Borne  :  they  met  the  Bishop  of  Àssisi,1  quite  as  much  to 
his  astonishment  as  to  their  own.  This  detail  is  precious 
because  it  proves  that  Francis  had  not  confided  his  plans 
to  Guido.  Notwithstanding  this  the  bishop,  it  is  said, 
ottered  to  make  interest  for  them  with  the  princes  of  the 
Church.  We  may  suspect  that  his  commendations  were 
not  very  warm.  At  all  events  they  did  not  avail  to  save 
Francis  and  his  company  either  from  a  searching  inquiry 
or  from  the  extended  fatherly  counsels  of  Cardinal  Gio- 
vanni di  San  Paolo  2  upon  the  difficulties  of  the  Bule, 
counsels  which  strongly  resemble  those  of  Guido  himself.3 
What  Francis  asked  for  was  simple  enough  ;  he  claimed 
no  privilege  of  any  sort,  but  only  that  the  pope  would 
approve  of  his  undertaking  to  lead  a  life  of  absolute  con- 
formity to  the  precepts  of  the  gospel.  There  is  a  deli- 
cate point  here  which  it  is  quite  worth  while  to  see 
clearly.  The  pope  was  not  called  upon  to  approve  the 
Bule,  since  that  came  from  Jesus  himself  ;  at  the  very 
worst  all  that  he  could  do  would  be  to  lay  an  ecclesiasti- 

1  1  Cel.,  32;  3  Soc,  47. 

2OftheColonnafamily  ;  lie  died  in  1216.  Cf.  3  Soc,  61.  Vide  Cardella, 
Memorie  storiche  dé  Cardinally  9  vols..  8vo.  Rome,  1792  ff.,  t.  i...  p.  177. 
He  was  at  Rome  in  tlie  summer  of  1210,  for  on  the  11th.  of  August  he 
countersigned  the  bull  Beligiosem  vitam.  Potthast.  4061.  Angelo  Clareno 
relates  the  approbation  with  more  precision  in  certain  respects  :  Gum 
vero  Summo  Pontifichea  quœ  postula.bat  [Franciscus]  ardua  valde  et  quasi 
impossibilia  viderentur  infinnitate  liominum  sui  temporis,  exhortabatur 
eum,  quod  aliquem  ordinem  vel  regulam  de  approbatis  assumeret,  at  ipse 
se  a  Ghristo  missum  ad  talem  vitam  et  non  alia  m  postulandam  constanter 
affirmans,  fixus  in  sua  petitione  permansit.  Tunc  dominus  JoTiannes  de 
sancto  Paulo  episcopus  Sabinensis  et  dominus  Hugo  episcopus  Hostùnsis 
Dei  spiritu  moti  assisterunt  Sancto  Francisco  et  pro  Ms  quœ  pttebat  coram 
iummo  Pontifice  et  Cardinalibus  plura proposuerunt  rationabilia  et  efflca- 
cia  valde.  Tribul.  Laurentinian  MS.,  f-  6a.  This  intervention  of 
Ugolini  is  mentioned  in  no  other  document.  It  is,  however,  by  no 
means  impossible.  He  also  was  in  Rome  in  the  summer  of  1210.  (Vide 
Potthast.  p.  462.) 

3  1  Cel.,  32  and  33  ;  3  Soc,  47  and  48.    Cf.  An.  Per.,  A.  SS.,  p.  590. 


on 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FKANCIS 


cal  censure  upon  Francis  and  his  companions  for  having 
acted  without  authority,  and  to  enjoin  them  to  leave  to 
the  secular  and  regular  clergy  the  task  of  reforming  the 
Church. 

Cardinal  Giovanni  di  San  Paolo,  to  whom  the  Bishop 
of  Assisi  presented  them,  had  informed  himself  of  the 
whole  history  of  the  Penitents.  He  lavished  upon  them 
the  most  affectionate  tokens  of  interest,  even  going  so  far 
as  to  beg  for  a  mention  in  their  prayers.  But  such  as- 
surances, which  appear  to  have  been  always  the  small 
change  of  the  court  of  Borne,  did  not  prevent  his  examin- 
ing them  for  several  successive  days,1  and  putting  to  them 
an  infinite  number  of  questions,  of  which  the  conclusion 
was  always  the  advice  to  enter  some  Order  already  exist- 
ing. 

To  this  the  unlucky  Francis  would  reply  as  best  he 
could,  often  not  without  embarrassment,  for  he  had  no 
wish  to  appear  to  think  lightly  of  the  cardinal's  counsels, 
and  yet  he  felt  in  his  heart  the  imperious  desire  to  obey 
his  vocation.  The  prelate  would  then  return  to  the 
charge,  insinuating  that  they  would  find  it  very  hard  to 
persevere,  that  the  enthusiasm  of  the  early  days  would 
pass  away,  and  again  pointing  out  a  more  easy  course. 
He  was  obliged  in  the  end  to  own  himself  vanquished. 
The  persistence  of  Francis,  who  had  never  weakened  for 
an  instant  nor  doubted  his  mission,  begat  in  him  a  sort 
of  awe,  while  the  perfect  humility  of  the  Penitents  and 
their  simple  and  striking  fidelity  to  the  Boman  Church 
reassured  him  in  the  matter  of  heresy. 

He  announced  to  them,  therefore,  that  he  would  speak 
of  them  to  the  pope,  and  would  act  as  their  advocate  with 
him.  According  to  the  Three  Companions  he  said  to  the 
pope:  "I  have  found  a  man  of  the  highest  perfection, 
who  desires  to  live  in  conformity  with  the  Holy  Gospel 
1  1  Cel.,  33. 


ST.  FRANCIS  AXD  INNOCENT  III 


97 


and  observe  evangelical  perfection  in  all  things.  I  be- 
lieve that  by  him  the  Lord  intends  to  reform  the  faith  of 
the  Holy  Church  throughout  the  whole  world."  1 

On  the  morrow  he  presented  Francis  and  his  compan- 
ions to  Innocent  III.  Naturally,  the  pope  vras  not  spar- 
ing of  expressions  of  sympathy,  but  he  also  repeated  to 
them  the  remarks  and  counsels  which  they  had  already 
heard  so  often.  "My dear  children,"  he  said,  "your  life 
appears  to  me  too  severe  ;  I  see  indeed  that  your 
fervor  is  too  great  for  any  doubt  of  you  to  be  possible, 
but  I  ought  to  consider  those  who  shall  come  after  you, 
lest  your  mode  of  life  should  be  beyond  their  strength/'2 

Adding  a  few  kind  words,  he  dismissed  them  without 
coming  to  any  definite  conclusion,  promising  to  consult  the 
cardinals,  and  advising  Francis  in  particular  to  address 
himself  to  God,  to  the  end  that  he  might  manifest  his  wilL 

1  3  Soc,  48.  ^ 

2  3  Soc,  49  ;  1  Cel.,  33  ;  Bon.,  35  and  86.  All  this  lias  been  much 
worked  over  by  tradition  and  gives  us  only  an  echo  of  the  reality.  It 
would  certainly  have  needed  very  little  for  the  Penitents  to  meet  the 
same  fate  before  Innocent  III.  as  the  Waldenses  before  Lucius  III.  Traces 
of  this  interview  are  found  in  two  texts  which  appear  to  me  to  be  too 
suspicious  to  warrant  their  insertion  in  the  body  of  the  narrative.  The 
first  is  a  fragment  of  Matthew  Paris  :  Papa  itaque  in  fratre  memorato 
liabitum  déformera,  tultum  despicabilem,  barbam  prolixam,  capillos  in- 
cultos,  supercHia  pendentia  et  nigra  diligenter  considerans  ;  cum  peti- 
tionem  ejus  tarn  arduam  et  execution*  impossibilem  recitare  fecisset,  des- 
pexit  cum  et  dixit:  Vade  f rater,  et  quœre  porcus,  quîbus  potius  debes 
qua??i  hominibus  comparari,  et  involve  te  cum  eis  in  whitabro,  et  regulam 
illis  a  te  commentatam  tradens,  offcium  turn  prœdicationis  impende. 
Quod  audiens  Franciscus  inclinato  capite  exivit  et  porcis  tandem  inventis, 
in  Into  se  cum  eis  tamdiu  involvit  quousque  a  planta  pedis  usque  ad 
verticem,  corpus  suum  totum  cum  ipso  habitu  polluisset.  Sicque  ad  consis- 
torium  revertens  Papœ  se  conspectïbus  prœsentavit  dicens:  Domine  feci 
sicut  prœcepisti  exaudi  nunc  obsecro  petitionem  me  am.  Ed.  Wats,  p.  340. 
The  incident  has  a  real  Franciscan  color,  and  should  have  some  historic 
basis.  Curiously,  it  in  some  sort  meets  a  passage  in  the  legend  of 
Bonaventura  which  is  an  interpolation  of  the  end  of  the  thirteenth 
century.    See  A.  SS.,  p.  591. 


93 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Francis's  anxiety  must  have  been  great  ;  he  could  not 
understand  these  dilatory  measures,  these  expressions  of 
affection  which  never  led  to  a  categorical  approbation. 
It  seemed  to  him  that  he  had  said  all  that  he  had  to  say. 
For  new  arguments  he  had  only  one  resource — prayer. 

He  felt  his  prayer  answered  when  in  his  conversation 
with  Jesus  the  parable  of  poverty  came  to  him  ;  he  re- 
turned to  lay  it  before  the  pope. 

There  was  in  the  desert  a  woman  who  was  very  poor,  but  beautiful. 
A  great  king,  seeing  her  beauty,  desired  to  take  her  for  his  wife,  for  he 
thought  that  by  her  he  should  have  beautiful  children.  The  marriage 
contracted  and  consummated,  many  sons  were  born  to  him.  When  they 
were  grown  up,  their  mother  spoke  to  them  thus  :  "My  sons,  you  have 
no  cause  to  blush,  for  you  are  the  sons  of  the  king  ;  go,  therefore,  to  his 
court,  and  he  will  give  you  everything  you  need." 

When  they  arrived  at  the  court  the  king  admired  their  beauty,  and 
finding  in  tbem  his  own  likeness  he  asked,  "Whose  sons  are  you?" 
And  when  they  replied  that  they  were  the  sons  of  a  poor  woman  who 
lived  in  the  desert,  the  king  clasped  them  to  his  heart  with  joy,  saying, 
"  Have  no  fear,  for  you  are  my  sons;  if  strangers  eat  at  my  table,  much 
more  shall  you  who  are  my  lawful  sons."  Then  the  king  sent  word  to 
the  woman  to  send  to  his  court  all  the  sons  which  she  had  borne,  that 
they  might  be  nourished  there. 

"Very  holy  father,"  added  Francis,  "  I  am  this  poor  woman  whom 
God  in  his  love  has  deigned  to  make  beautiful,  and  of  whom  he  has  been 
pleased  to  have  lawful  sons.  The  King  of  Kings  has  told  me  that  he 
will  provide  for  all  the  sons  which  he  may  have  of  me,  for  if  he  sus- 
tains bastards,  how  much  more  his  legitimate  sons."  1 

1  3Soc.,50  and  51;  Bon..  37;  2  Cel.,  1,  11;  Bernard  de  Besse, 
Turin  MS.,  f°  101b.  Ubertini  di  Casali  {Arbor  Htœ  erucifixœ,  Venice, 
1485,  lib.  v.,  cap.  iii.)  tells  a  curious  story  in  which  he  depicts  the  in- 
dignation of  the  prelates  against  Francis.  Quœnam  hœc  est  doctrina  nova 
quai n  infers  auribus  nostris?  Quis  potest  vivere  sine  temporalium  posses- 
sione  ?  Numquid  tu  melior  es  quam  patres  nostri  qui  dederunt  nobis  tern- 
poralia  et  in  temporalibus  abundantes  ecclesias  possiderunt?  Then  follows 
the  fine  prayer  inserted  by  Wadding  in  Francis's  works.  The  central 
idea  is  the  same  as  in  the  parable  of  poverty.  This  story,  though  not 
referable  to  any  source,  has  nevertheless  its  importance,  since  it  shows 
how  in  the  year  1300  a  man  who  had  all  the  documents  before  his  eyes, 
represented  to  himself  Francis's  early  steps. 


ST.  FRANCIS  AND  INNOCENT  III 


99 


So  much  simplicity,  joined  with  such  pious  obstinacy, 
at  last  conquered  Innocent.  In  the  humble  mendicant 
he  perceived  an  apostle  and  prophet  whose  mouth  no 
power  could  close.  Successor  of  St.  Peter  and  vicar 
of  Jesus  Christ  that  he  felt  himself,  he  saw  in  the  mean 
and  despised  man  before  him  one  who  with  the  authority 
of  absolute  faith  proclaimed  himself  the  root  of  a  new 
lineage  of  most  legitimate  Christians. 

The  biographers  have  held  that  by  this  parable  Francis 
sought  above  all  things  to  tranquillize  the  pope  as  to  the 
future  of  the  brethren  ;  they  find  in  it  a  reply  to  the 
anxieties  of  the  pontiff,  who  feared  to  see  them  starve  to 
death.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  its  original  meaning 
was  totally  different.  It  shows  that  with  all  his  humility 
Francis  knew  how  to  speak  out  boldly,  and  that  all  his 
respect  for  the  Church  could  not  hinder  his  seeing,  and, 
when  necessary,  saying,  that  he  and  his  brethren  were 
the  lawful  sons  of  the  gospel,  of  which  the  members  of 
the  clergy  were  only  extranei,  We  shall  find  in  the 
course  of  his  life  more  than  one  example  of  this  indom- 
itable boldness,  which  disarmed  Innocent  III.  as  'well  as 
the  future  Gregory  IX. 

In  a  consistory  which  doubtless  was  held  between  the 
two  audiences  some  of  the  cardinals  expressed  the  opin- 
ion that  the  initiative  of  the  Penitents  of  Assisi  ^was  an 
innovation,  and  that  their  mode  of  life  was  entirely  be- 
yond human  power.  "  But,"  replied  Giovanni  di  San 
Paolo,  "  if  we  hold  that  to  observe  gospel  perfection 
and  make  profession  of  it  is  an  irrational  and  impos- 
sible innovation,  are  we  not  convicted  of  blasphemy 
against  Christ,  the  author  of  the  gospel  ?  ;' 1 

These  words  struck  Innocent  III.  with  great  force  ;  he 
knew  better  than  any  one  that  the  possessions  of  the  ec- 
clesiastics were  the  great  obstacles  to  the  reform  of  the 
^on.,  36. 


100 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Church,  and  that  the  threatened  success  of  the  Albigen- 
sian  heresy  was  especially  due  to  the  fact  that  it  preached 
the  doctrine  of  poverty. 

Two  years  before  he  had  accorded  his  approbation  to 
a  group  of  Waldensians,  who  under  the  name  Poor  Cath- 
olics had  desired  to  remain  faithful  to  the  Church  ; 1  he 
therefore  gave  his  approval  to  the  Penitents  of  Assisi,  but, 
as  a  contemporary  chronicler  has  well  observed,  it  was  in 
the  hope  that  they  would  wrest  the  banner  from  heresy.2 

Yet  his  doubts  and  hesitations  were  not  entirely  dis- 
sipated. He  reserved  his  definitive  approbation,  there- 
fore, while  lavishing  upon  the  brothers  the  most  affec- 
tionate tokens  of  interest.  He  authorized  them  to  con- 
tinue their  missions  everywhere,  after  having  gained  the 
consent  of  their  ordinaries.  He  required,  however,  that 
they  should  give  themselves  a  responsible  superior  to 
whom  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  could  always  address 
themselves.  Naturally,  Francis  was  chosen.3  This  fact, 
so  humble  in  appearance,  definitively  constituted  the 
Franciscan  family. 

1  The  attempt  of  Durand  of  Huesca  to  create  a  mendicant  order  has 
not  yet  been  studied  with  sufficient  minuteness.  Chief  of  the  Wal- 
denses  of  Aragon,  he  was  present  in  1207  at  the  conference  of  Pamiers, 
and  decided  to  return  to  the  Church.  Received  with  kindness  by  the 
pope  he  at  first  had  a  great  success,  and  by  1209  had  established  com- 
munities in  Aragon,  at  Carcassonne,  Xarbonne,  Béziers,  Nimes,  Uzès, 
Milan.  We  find  in  this  movement  all  the  lineaments  of  the  institute 
of  St.  Dominic  ;  it  was  an  order  of  priests  to  whom  theological  stud- 
ies were  recommended.  They  disappeared  almost  completely  in  the 
storm  of  the  Albigensian  crusade.  Innocent  III.,  epistolœ,  xi.,  196, 
197,  198,  ;  xii,,  17,  6G  ;  xiii. ,  63,  77,  78,  94  ;  xv.,  82,  83,  90,  91,  92,  93, 
94,  96,  137,  146.  The  first  of  these  bulls  contains  the  very  curious  Rule 
of  this  ephemeral  order.  Upon  its  disappearance  vide  Ripoli,  Bullarium 
Prœdicatorum,8  vols.,  folio,  Rome,  1729-1740,  t.  i.,  p.  96.  Cf.  Elie 
Berger,  Registres  d'Innocent  IV.,  2752. 

2  Burchard,  of  the  order  of  the  Premostrari,  who  died  in  1226.  See 
below,  p.  234. 

3  3  Soc,  52  :  Bon.,  38. 


ST.  FRANCIS  AXD  INNOCENT  III  101 


The  mystics  whom  we  saw  going  from  village  to  vil- 
lage transported  with  love  and  liberty  accepted  the  yoke 
almost  without  thinking  about  it.  This  yoke  will  pre- 
serve them  from  the  disintegration  of  the  heretics,  but  it 
will  make  itself  sharply  felt  by  those  pure  souls  ;  they 
will  one  day  look  back  to  the  early  days  of  the  Order  as 
the  only  time  when  their  life  was  truly  conformed  to  the 
gospel. 

"When  Francis  heard  the  words  of  the  supreme  pontiff 
he  prostrated  himself  at  his  feet,  promising  the  most 
perfect  obedience  with  all  his  heart.  The  pope  blessed 
them,  saying  :  "  Go,  my  brethren,  and  may  God  be  with 
you.  Preach  penitence  to  everyone  according  as  the 
Jjord  may  deign  to  inspire  you.  Then  when  the  All- 
powerful  shall  have  made  you  multiply  and  go  forward, 
you  will  refer  to  us  ;  we  will  concede  what  you  ask,  and 
we  may  then  with  greater  security  accord  to  you  even 
more  than  yon  ask."  1 

Francis  and  his  companions  were  too  little  familiar 
with  Roman  phraseology  to  perceive  that  after  all  the 
Holy  See  had  simply  consented  to  suspend  judgment  in 
view  of  the  uprightness  of  their  intentions  and  the  purity 
of  their  faith.2 

The  flowers  of  clerical  rhetoric  hid  from  them  the 
shackles  which  had  been  laid  upon  them.  The  curia,  in 
fact,  was  not  satisfied  with  Francis's  vow  of  fidelity,  it- 
desired  in  addition  to  stamp  the  Penitents  with  the  seal 
of  the  Church  :  the  Cardinal  of  San  Paolo  was  deputed  to 
confer  upon  them  the  tonsure.  From  this  time  they  were 
all  under  the  spiritual  authority  of  the  Roman  Church, 

*3  Soc,  52  and  49. 

^  St.  Antonino,  Archbishop  of  Florence,  saw  very  clearly  that  it  was 
quœdam  concessio  simplex  habitus  et  modi  illius  ritendi  et  quasi  per mimo. 
A.  SS.,  p.  839.  The  expression  "  approbation  of  the  Rule"  by  which 
the  act  of  Innocent  III.  is  usually  designated  is  therefore  erroneous. 


102 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


The  thoroughly  lay  creation  of  St.  Francis  had  become, 
in  spite  of  himself,  an  ecclesiastical  institution  :  it  must 
soon  degenerate  into  a  clerical  institution.  All  un- 
awares, the  Franciscan  movement  had  been  unfaithful  to 
its  origin.  The  prophet  had  abdicated  in  favor  of  the 
piiest,  not  indeed  without  possibility  of  return,  for  when 
a  man  has  once  reigned,  I  would  say,  thought,  in  liberty — 
what  other  kingdom  is  there  on  this  earth? — he  makes 
but  an  indifferent  slave  ;  in  vain  he  tries  to  submit  ;  in 
spite  of  himself  it  happens  at  times  that  he  lifts  his 
head  proudly,  he  rattles  his  chains,  he  'remembers  the 
struggles,  sadness,  anguish  of  the  days  of  liberty,  and 
weeps  their  loss.  Among  the  sons  of  St.  Francis  many 
were  destined  to  weep  their  lost  liberty,  many  to  die  to 
conquer  it  again. 


CHAPTER.  XTL 


EIVO-TORTO 
1210-1211 

The  Penitents  of  Assisi  were  overflowing  with  joy. 
After  so  many  mortally  long  days  spent  in  that  Rome, 
so  different  from  the  other  cities  that  they  knew,  exposed 
to  the  ill-disguised  suspicions  of  the  prelates  and  the 
jeers  of  pontifical  lackeys,  the  day  of  departure  seemed 
to  them  like  a  deliverance.  At  the  thought  of  once  more 
seeing  their  beloved  mountains  they  were  seized  by  that 
homesickness  of  the  child  for  its  native  village  which  sim- 
ple and  kindly  souls  preserve  till  their  latest  breath. 

Immediately  after  the  ceremony  they  prayed  at  the 
tomb  of  St.  Peter,  and  then  crossing  the  whole  city  they 
quitted  Rome  by  the  Porta  Salara. 

Thomas  of  Celano,  very  brief  as  to  all  that  concerns 
Francis's  sojourn  in  the  Eternal  City,  recounts  at  full 
length  the  light-heartedness  of  the  little  band  on  quitting 
it.  Already  it  began  to  be  transfigured  in  their  memory  ; 
pains,  fatigues,  fears,  disquietude,  hesitations  were  all 
forgotten  ;  they  thought  only  of  the  fatherly  assurances 
of  the  supreme  pontiff — the  vicar  of  Christ,  the  lord  and 
father  of  the  Christian  universe  —  and  promised  them- 
selves to  make  ever  new  efforts  to  follow  the  Rule  with 
fidelity. 

Full  of  these  thoughts  they  had  set  out,  without  pro- 
visions, to  cross  the  Campagna  of  Rome,  whose  few  inhab- 
itants never  venture  out  in  the  heat  of  the  day.  The 


104 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


road  stretches  away  northward,  keeping  at  some  distance 
from  the  Tiber  ;  on  the  left  the  jagged  crest  of  Soracte, 
bathed  in  mists  formed  by  the  exhalations  of  the  earth, 
looms  up  disproportionately  as  it  fades  in  the  distance  ;  on 
the  right,  the  everlasting  undulations  of  the  hillocks  with 
their  wide  pastures  separated  by  thickets  so  parched  and 
ragged  that  they  seemed  to  cry  for  mercy  and  pardon. 
Between  them  the  dusty  roa4  which  goes  straight  forward, 
implacable,  showing,  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach,  nothing 
but  the  quivering  of  the  fiery  air.  Not  a  house,  not  a 
tree,  not  a  passing  breeze,  nothing  to  sustain  the  traveller 
under  the  disquietude  which  creeps  over  him.  Here  and 
there  are  a  few  abandoned  huts,  their  ruins  looking 
like  the  corpses  of  departed  civilizations,  and  on  the  edge 
of  the  horizon  the  hills  rising  ivp  like  gigantic  and  un- 
surmountable  walls. 

There  are  no  words  to  describe  the  physical  and  moral 
sufferings  to  which  he  is  exposed  who  undertakes  without 
proper  preparation  to  cross  this  inhospitable  district. 
To  the  weakness  caused  by  lack  of  air  soon  succeeds  an 
insurmountable  lassitude.  The  feet  sink  in  a  soft,  tenu- 
ous dust  which  every  step  sends  up  in  clouds  ;  it  covers 
you,  penetrates  your  skin,  and  parches  your  mouth  even 
more  than  thirst.  Little  by  little  all  energy  ebbs  away, 
a  dumb  dejection  seizes  you,  sight  and  thought  become 
alike  confused,  fever  ensues,  and  you  cast  yourself  down 
by  the  roadside,  unable  to  take  another  step. 

In  their  haste  to  leave  Borne  Francis  and  his  compan- 
ions had  forgotten  all  this,  and  had  imprudently  set  forth. 
They  would  have  succumbed  if  a  chance  traveller  had 
not  brought  them  succor.  He  was  obliged  to  leave  them 
before  they  had  shaken  off  the  last  hallucinations  of  fe- 
ver, leaving  them  amazed  with  the  unexpected  succor 
which  Providence  had  sent  them.1 

1  1  Cel.,  34  ;  3  Soc  ,  53  ;  Bon.,  39. 


EIYO-TORTO  lOo 

They  were  so  severely  shattered  that  on  arriving  at  Orte 
they  were  obliged  to  stop  awhile.  In  a  desert  spot  not 
far  from  this  city  they  found  a  shelter  admirably  adapted 
to  serve  them  for  refuge  ; 1  it  was  one  of  those  Etruscan 
tombs  so  common  in  that  country,  whose  chambers  serve 
to  this  day  as  a  shelter  for  beggars  and  gypsies.  "While 
some  of  the  brethren  hastened  to  the  city  to  beg  for  food, 
the  others  remained  in  this  solitude  enjoying  the  happi- 
ness of  being  together,  forming  a  thousand  plans,  and 
more  than  ever  delighting  in  the  charm  of  freedom  from 
care  and  renunciation  of  material  goods. 

This  place  had  so  strong  an  attraction  for  them  that  it 
required  an  effort  of  will  to  quit  it  at  the  end  of  a  fort- 
night. The  seduction  of  a  life  purely  contemplative  as- 
sailed Francis,  and  he  asked  himself  if  instead  of  preach- 
ing to  the  multitudes  he  would  not  do  better  to  live  in 
retreat,  solely  mindful  of  the  inward  dialogue  between 
the  soul  and  God.'2  *■ 

This  aspiration  for  the  selfish  repose  of  the  cloister 
came  back  to  him  several  times  in  his  life  ;  but  love  al- 
ways won  the  victory.  He  was  too  much  the  child  of  his 
time  not  to  be  at  times  tempted  by  that  happiness  which 
the  Middle  Ages  regarded  as  the  supreme  bliss  of  the 
elect  in  paradise — peace.  Beafi  mortid  quia  qulescunt  ! 
His  distinguishing  peculiarity  is  that  he  never  gave  way 
toit. 

The  reflections  of  Francis  and  his  companions  during 
their  stay  at  Orte  only  made  their  apostolic  mission 
more  clear  and  imperative  to  them.  He,  above  all,  seemed 
to  be  filled  with  a  new  ardor,  and  like  a  valiant  knight 
he  burned  to  throw  himself  into  the  thick  of  the  fray. 

1  Probably  at  Otricoli.  whicb  lies  on  the  high-road  between  Rome  and 
Spoleto.  Orte  is  an  hour  and  a  half  farther  on.  It  is  the  ancient  Oti'fc- 
ulum,  where  many  antiquities  have  been  found. 

2  1  Cel.,  35  ;  Bon.;  40  and  41. 


100 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRÀ2ÎCI3 


Their  way  now  led  through  tlie  valley  of  the  Xera. 
The  contrast  between  these  cool  glens,  awake  with  a 
thousand  voices,  and  the  desolation  of  the  Roman  Cam- 
pagna,  must  have  struck  them  vividly  ;  the  stream  is  only 
a  swollen  torrent,  but  it  rims  so  noisily  over  pebbles  and 
rocks  that  it  seems  to  be  conversing  with  them  and  with 
the  trees  of  the  neighboring  forest.  In  proportion  as  they 
had  felt  themselves  alone  on  the  road  from  Ronie  to 
Otricoli,  they  now  felt  themselves  compassed  about  with 
the  life,  the  fecundity,  the  gayety  of  the  country. 

The  account  of  Thomas  of  Celano  becomes  so  ani- 
mated as  it  describes  the  life  of  Francis  at  this  epoch, 
that  one  cannot  help  thinking  that  at  this  time  he  must 
have  seen  him,  and  that  this  first  meeting  remained  al- 
ways in  his  memory  as  the  radiant  dawn  of  his  spiritual 
life.1 

The  Brothers  had  taken  to  preaching  in  such  places 
as  they  came  upon- along  their  route.  Their  words  were 
always  pretty  much  the  same,  they  showed  the  blessed- 
ness of  peace  and  exhorted  to  penitence.  Emboldened  by 
the  welcome  they  had  received  at  Rome,  which  in  all  in- 
nocence they  might  have  taken  to  be  more  favorable  than 
it  really  was,  they  told  the  story  to  everyone  they  met, 
and  thus  set  all  scruples  at  rest. 

These  exhortations,  in  which  Francis  spared  not  his 
hearers,  but  in  which  the  sternest  reproaches  were  min- 
gled with  so  much  of  love,  produced  an  enormous  effect. 
Man  desn*es  above  all  things  to  be  loved,  and  when  he 
meets  one  who  loves  him  sincerely  he  very  seldom  re- 
fuses him  either  his  love  or  his  admiration. 

It  is  only  a  low  understanding  that  confounds  love 
with  weakness  and  compliance.    We  sometimes  see  sick 

1  The  only  road  connecting  Celano  with  Rome,  as  well  as  with  all 
Central  and  Northern  Italy,  passes  by  Aquila,  Rieti,  and  Terni,  where  it 
joins  the  high-roads  leading  from  the  north  toward  Rome. 


RIVO-TOKÏO 


107 


men  feverisMj  kissing  the  hand  of  the  surgeon  who  per- 
forms an  operation  upon  them  :  we  sometimes  do  the 
same  for  our  spiritual  surgeons,  for  we  realize  all  that 
there  is  of  vigor,  pity,  compassion  in  the  tortures  which 
they  inflict,  and  the  cries  which  they  force  from  us  are 
quite  as  much  of  gratitude  as  of  pain. 

Men  hastened  from  all  parts  to  hear  these  preachers 
who  were  more  severe  upon  themselves  than  on  anyone 
else.  Members  of  the  secular  clergy,  monks,  learned  men, 
rich  men  even,  often  mingled  in  the  impromptu  audiences 
gathered  in  the  streets  and  public  places.  All  were  not 
converted,  but  it  would  have  been  very  difficult  for  any 
of  them  to  forget  this  stranger  whom  they  met  one  day 
upon  their  way,  and  who  in  a  few  words  had  moved  them 
to  the  very  bottom  of  their  hearts  with  anxiety  and  fear. 

Francis  was  in  truth,  as  Celano  says,  the  bright  morn- 
ing star.  His  simple  preaching  took  hold  on  consciences, 
snatched  his  hearers  from  the  mire  and  blood  in  which 
they  were  painfully  trudging,  and  in  spite  of  themselves 
carried  them  to  the  very  heavens,  to  those  serene  regions 
where  all  is  silent  save  the  voice  of  the  heavenly  Father. 

The  whole  country  trembled,  the  barren  land  was  already 
covered  with  a  rich  harvest,  the  withered  vine  began  again 
to  blossom."  1 

Only  a  profoundly  religious  and  poetic  soul  (is  not  the 
one  the  other?;  can  understand  the  transports  of  joy 
which  overflowed  the  souls  of  St.  Francis's  spiritual  sons. 

The  greatest  crime  of  our  industrial  and  commercial 
civilization  is  that  it  leaves  us  a  taste  only  for  that  which 
may  be  bought  with  money,  and  makes  us  overlook  the 
purest  and  truest  joys  which  are  all  the  time  within  our 
reach.  The  evil  has  roots  far  in  the  past.  c;  Wherefore," 
said  the  God  of  old  Isaiah,  £i  do  you  weigh  money  for 
that  which  is  not  meat  ?  why  labor  for  that  which  satis- 

1  1  Ce!.,  3G  and  37  ;  3  Soc,  54  ;  Bon.,  4->4-3. 


10S  LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 

fietli  not?  Hearken  unto  me,  and  ye  shall  eat  that 
which  is  good,  and  your  soul  sliall  delight  itself  in  fat- 
ness." 1 

Joys  bought  Avith  money — noisy,  feverish  pleasures — 
are  nothing  compared  with  those  sweet,  quiet,  modest  but 
profound,  lasting,  and  peaceful  joys,  enlarging,  not  weary- 
ing the  heart,  which  we  too  often  pass  by  on  one  side, 
like  those  peasants  whom  we  see  going  into  ecstasies 
over  the  fireworks  of  a  fair,  while  they  have  not  so 
much  as  a  glance  for  the  glorious  splendors  of  a  sum- 
mer night. 

In  the  plain  of  Assisi,  at  an  hour's  walk  from  the  city 
and  near  the  highway  between  Perugia  and  Rome,  was  a 
ruinous  cottage  called  Rivo-Torto.  A  torrent,  almost 
always  dry,  but  capable  of  becoming  terrible  in  a  storm, 
descends  from  Mount  Subasio  and  passes  beside  it.  The 
rain  had  no  owner  ;  it  had  served  as  a  leper  hospital 
before  the  construction  by  the  Crucigeri2  of  their- hospital 

1  Isaiah,  to.,  2. 

2  This  Order  deserves  to  be  better  known  ;  it  was  founded  under 
Alexander  III.  and  rapidly  spread  all  over  Central  Italy  and  the  Esîc. 
In  Francis's  lifetime  it  bad  in  Italy  and  the  Holy  Land  about  forty 
houses  dedicated  to  the  care  of  lepers.  It  is  very  probable  that  it  was  at 
San  Salvatore  dette  Pareti  that  Francis  visited  these  unhappy  sufferers. 
He  there  made  the  particular  acquaintance  of  a  Cruciger  named  Mùrîco. 
The  latter  afterward  falling  ill,  Francis  sent  him  a  remedy  which  would 
cure  him,  informing  him  at  the  same  time  that  he  was  to  become  his 
disciple,  which  shortly  afterward  took  place.  The  hospital  San  Salca- 
tore  has  disappeared  ;  it  stood  in  the  place  now  called  Osvedaletto,  where 
a  smalt  chapel  now  stands  half  way  between  Assisi  and  Sauta  Maria 
degli  Angeli.  It  was  from  there  that  the  dying  Francis  blessed  Assiii. 
For  Morico  vide  3  Soc,  35  ;  Bon..  49  ;  2  Cel.,  3, 123  ;  Conform..,  63b.— 
For  the  hospital  vide  Bon.,  49  ;  Conform.,  135a,  1;  Honora  III.  opera, 
Horoy.  t  i.,  col.  206.  Cf.  Potthast,  7746.;  L.  Auvray,  Registres  de  Grégaire 
IX.,  Paris.  1S90,  4to,  no.  209.  For  the  Crucigeri  in  the  time  of  St. 
Francis  vide  the  interesting  bull  Gum  tu  fili  prior,  of  July  8,  1203  ; 
Migne.  Inn.  op.,  t.  H.,  col.  125  fr.  Cf.  Potthast,  1959,  and  Cum  postons, 
April  5,  1204  ;  Migne,  loc,  cit.,  319.    Cf.  Potthast,  21G9  and  4474. 


RIVO-TORÏO 


109 


San  Salvatore  délie  Pareti  ;  but  since  that  time  it  had 
been  abandoned.  Now  came  Francis  and  his  companions 
to  seek  shelter  there.1  It  is  one  of  the  quietest  spots  in 
the  suburbs  of  Assisi,  and  from  thence  they  could  easily 
go  ont  into  the  neighborhood  in  all  directions  ;  it  being 
about  an  equal  distance  from  Portiuncula  and  St.  Da- 
mian.  But  the  principal  motive  for  the  choice  of  the 
place  seems  to  have  been  the  proximity  of  the  Carceri,  as 
those  shallow  natural  grottos  are  called  which  are  found 
in  the  forests,  half  way  up  the  side  of  Mount  Subasio. 
Following  up  the  bed  of  the  torrent  of  Eivo-Torto  one 
reaches  them  in  an  hour  by  way  of  rugged  and  slippery 
paths  where  the  very  goats  do  not  willingly  venture. 
Once  arrived,  one  might  fancy  oneself  a  thousand  leagues 
from  any  human  being,  so  numerous  are  the  birds  of  prey 
which  live  here  quite  undisturbed.'3 

Francis  loved  this  solitude  and  often  retired  thither 
with  a  few  companions.  The  brethren  in  that  case  shared 
between  them  all  care  of  their  material  wants,  after  which, 
each  one  retiring  into  one  of  these  caves,  they  were  able 
for  a  few  days  to  listen  only  to  the  inner  voice. 

These  little  hermitages,  sufficiently  isolated  to  secure 
them  from  disturbance,  but  near  enough  to  the  cities 
to  permit  their  going  thither  to  preach,  may  be  found 
wherever  Francis  went.  They  form,  as  it  were,  a  series 
of  documents  about  his  life  quite  as  important  as  the 
written  witnesses.  Something  of  bis  soul  may  still  be 
found  in  these  caverns  in  the  Apennine  forests.  He 
never  separated  the  contemplative  from  the  active  life. 
A  precious  witness  to  this  fact  is  found  in  the  regu- 

1  3  Soc. ,  55 . 

-  All  this  yet  remains  in  its  primitive  state.  The  road  which  went 
from  Assisi  to  the  now  ruined  Abbey  of  Mount  Subasio  (almost  on  the 
summit  of  the  mountain)  passed  the  Carceri,  where  there  was  a  little 
chapel  built  by  the  Benedictines. 


110 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


lations  for  the  brethren  during  their  sojourn  in  her- 
mitage.1 

The  return  of  the  Brothers  to  Rivo-Torto  was  marked 
by  avast  increase  of  popularity.  The  prejudiced  attacks 
to  which  they  had  formerly  been  subjected  were  lost  in 
a  chorus  of  praises.  Perhaps  men  suspected  the  ill-will 
of  the  bishop  and  were  happy  to  see  him  checked.  How- 
ever this  may  be,  a  lively  feeling  of  sympathy  and  admi- 
ration was  awakened  ;  the  people  recalled  to  mind  the 
indifference  manifested  by  the  son  of  Bernardone  a  few 
months  before  with  regard  to  Otho  IV.  going  to  be 
crowned  at  Borne.  The  emperor  had  made  a  progress 
through  Italy  with  a  numerous  suite  and  a  pomp  de- 
signed to  produce  an  effect  on  the  minds  of  the  populace  ; 
but  not  only  had  Francis  not  interrupted  his  work  to  go 
and  see  him,  he  had  enjoined  upon  his  friars  also  to  ab- 
stain from  going,  and  had  merely  selected  one  of  them  to 
carry  to  the  monarch  a  reminder  of  the  ephemeral  nature 
of  worldly  glory.  Later  on  it  was  held  that  he  had  pre- 
dicted to  the  emperor  his  approaching  excommunication. 

This  spirited  attitude  made  a  vivid  impression  on  the 
popular  imagination.2  Perhaps  it  was  of  more  service 
in  forming  general  opinion  than  anything  he  had  done 
thus  far.  The  masses,  who  are  not  often  alive  to  delicate 
sentiments,  respond  quickly  to  those  who,  whether  rightly 
or  wrongly,  do  not  bow  down  before  power.  This  time 
they  perceived  that  where  other  men  would  see  the  poor, 
the  rich,  the  noble,  the  common,  the  learned,  Francis 

1  Mi  qui  religiose  rolunt  stare  in  eremis  tint  ires  aut  quatuor  ad  plus. 
Duo  ex  ipsis  sint  matres,  et  habeant  duos  Jilios,  rel  unum  ad  minus. 
Mi  duo  teneant  vitam  Martliœ  et  alii  duo  vitam  Mariœ  3fagdalrnœ. 
Assisi  MS.,  338,  43a-b  ;  text  given  also  in  Conf.,  143a,  1,  from  which 
Wadding  borrows  it  for  his  edition  of  the  Opuscules  of  St.  Francis. 
Cf.  2  Cel.,  3,  113.  It  is  possible  that  we  have  here  a  fragment  of  the 
Rule,  which  must  have  been  composed  toward  1217. 

2  1  Cel.,  42  and  43  :  3  Soc.  55  ;  Bon.,  41. 


EIVO-TORTO 


111 


saw  only  souls,  which  were  to  him  the  more  precious  as 
they  were  more  neglected  or  despised. 

No  biographer  informs  us  how  long  the  Penitents  re- 
mained at  Rivo-Torto.  It  seems  probable,  however,  that 
they  spent  there  the  latter  part  of  1210  and  the  early 
months  of  1211,  evangelizing  the  towns  and  villages  of 
the  neighborhood. 

They  suffered  much  ;  this  part  of  the  plain  of  Assisi  is 
inundated  by  torrents  nearly  every  autumn,  and  many 
times  the  poor  friars,  blockaded  in  the  lazaretto,  were 
forced  to  satisfy  their  hunger  with  a  few  roots  from  the 
neighboring  fields. 

The  barrack  in  which  they  lived  was  so  narrow  that, 
when  they  were  all  there  at  once,  they  had  much  diffi- 
culty not  to  crowd  one  another.  To  secure  to  each  one 
his  due  quota  of  space,  Francis  wrote  the  name  of  each 
brother  upon  the  column  which  supports  the  building. 
But  these  minor  discomforts  in  no  sense  disturbed  their 
happiness.  No  apprehension  had  as  yet  come  to  cloud 
Francis's  hopes  ;  he  was  overflowing  with  joy  and  kind- 
liness ;  all  the  memories  which  Rivo-Torto  has  left  with 
the  Order  are  fresh  and  sweet  pictures  of  him.1 

One  night  all  the  brethren  seemed  to  be  sleeping,  when 
he  heard  a  moaning.  It  was  one  of  his  sheep,  to  speak 
after  the  manner  of  the  Franciscan  biographer,  who  had 
denied  himself  too  rigorously  and  was  dying  of  hunger. 
Francis  immediately  rose,  called  the  brother  to  him. 
brought  forth  the  meagre  reserve  of  food,  and  himself 
began  to  eat  to  inspire  the  other  with  courage,  explaining 
to  him  that  if  penitence  is  good  it  is  still  necessary  to 
temper  it  with  discretion.2 

1  1  Cel. .  42-44. 

2  2  Cel.,  1, 15  ;  Bon. .  65.  These  two  authors  do.not  say  where  the  event 
took  place  ;  but  there  appears  to  be  no  reason  for  snspecting  the  indica- 
tion of  Rivo-Torto  given  by  the  Speculum,  fo.  21a. 


112 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FKAXCIS 


Francis  had  that  tact  of  the  heart  which  divines  the 
secrets  of  others  and  anticipates  their  desires.  At  an- 
other time,  still  at  Eivo-Torto,  he  took  a  sick  brother 
by  the  hand,  led  him  to  a  grape-vine,  and,  presenting 
him  with  a  fine  cluster,  began  himself  to  eat  of  it.  It 
was  nothing,  but  the  simple  act  so  bound  to  him  the 
sick  man's  heart  that  many  years  after  the  brother  could 
not  speak  of  it  without  emotion.1 

But  Francis  was  far  from  neglecting  his  mission.  Ever 
growing  more  sure,  not  of  himself  but  of  his  duty  toward 
men,  he  took  part  in  the  political  and  social  affairs  of  his 
province  with  the  confidence  of  an  upright  and  pure 
heart,  never  able  to  understand  how  stupidity,  per- 
verseness,  pride,  and  indolence,  by  leaguing  themselves 
together,  may  check  the  finest  and  most  righteous  im- 
pulses. He  had  the  faith  which  removes  mountains,  and 
was  wholly  free  from  that  touch  of  scepticism,  so  com- 
mon in  our  day,  which  points  out  that  it  is  of  no  more 
use  to  move  mountains  than  to  change  the  place  of 
difficulties. 

f  When  the  people  of  Assisi  learned  that  his  Rule  had 
been  approved  by  the  pope  there  was  strong  excitement  ; 
every  one  desired  to  hear  him  preach.  The  clergy  were 
obliged  to  give  way  ;  they  offered  him  the  Church  of  St. 
George,  but  this  church  was  manifestly  insufficient  for 
the  crowds  of  hearers  ;  it  was  necessary  to  open  the 
cathedral  to  him. 

St.  Francis  never  said  anything  especially  new  ;  to  win 
hearts  he  had  that  which  is  worth  more  than  any  arts  of 
oratory — an  ardent  conviction  ;  he  spoke  as  compelled 
by  the  imperious  need  of  kindling  others  with  the  flame 
that  burned  within  himself.  When  they  heard  him  recall 
the  horrors  of  war,  the  crimes  of  the  populace,  the  laxity 
of  the  great,  the  rapacity  which  dishonored  the  Church, 

1  2  Cel.,  3,  110.    Cf.  Spec,  22a. 


EIVO-TORTO 


113 


the  age-long  widowhood  of  Poverty,  each  one  felt  himself 
taken  to  task  in  his  own  conscience. 

An  attentive  or  excited  crowd  is  always  very  impres- 
sionable, but  this  peculiar  sensitiveness  was  perhaps 
stronger  in  the  Middle  Ages  than  at  any  other  time. 
Nervous  disturbances  were  in  the  air,  and  upon  men 
thus  prepared  the  will  of  the  preacher  impressed  itself  in 
a  manner  almost  magnetic. 

To  understand  what  Francis's  preaching  must  have 
been  like  we  must  forget  the  manners  of  to-day,  and 
transport  ourselves  for  a  moment  to  the  Cathedral  of 
Assisi  in  the  thirteenth  century  ;  it  is  still  standing,  but 
the  centuries  have  given  to  its  stones  a  fine  rust  of  pol- 
ished bronze,  which  recalls  Venice  and  Titian's  tones  of 
ruddy  gold.  It  was  new  then,  and  all  sparkling  with 
whiteness,  with  the  fine  rosy  tinge  of  the  stones  of 
Mount  Subasio.  It  had  been  built  by  the  people  of 
Assisi  a  few  years  before  in  one  of  those  outbursts 
of  faith  and  union  which  were  almost  everywhere  the 
prelude  of  the  communal  movement.  So,  when  the  peo- 
ple thronged  into  it  on  their  high  days,  they  not  merely 
had  none  of  that  vague  respect  for  a  holy  place  which, 
though  it  has  passed  into  the  customs  of  other  countries, 
still  coutinues  to  be  unknown  in  Italy,  but  they  felt 
themselves  at  home  in  a  palace  which  they  had  built  for 
themselves.  More  than  in  any  other  church  they  there 
felt  themselves  at  liberty  to  criticise  the  preacher,  and 
they  had  no  hesitation  in  proving  to  him,  either  by  mur- 
murs of  dissatisfaction  or  by  applause,  just  what  they 
thought  of  his  words.  We  must  remember  also  that  the 
churches  of  Italy  have  neither  pews  nor  chairs,  that  one 
must  listen  standing  or  kneeling,  while  the  preacher 
walks  about  gesticulating  on  a  platform  ;  add  to  this  the 
general  curiosity,  the  clamorous  sympathies  of  many,  the 
disguised  opposition  of  some,  and  we  shall  have  a  vague 
8 


114 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


notion  of  the  conditions  under  which  Francis  first  entered 
the  pulpit  of  San  Rutin o. 

His  success  was  startling.  The  poor  felt  that  they  had 
found  a  friend,  a  brother,  a  champion,  almost  an  avenger. 
The  thoughts  which  they  hardly  dared  murmur  beneath 
their  breath  Francis  proclaimed  at  the  top  of  his  voice, 
daring  to  bid  all,  without  distinction,  to  repent  and  love 
one  another.  His  words  were  a  cry  of  the  heart,  an  ap- 
peal to  the  consciences  of  all  his  fellow-citizens,  almost 
recalling  the  passionate  utterances  of  the  prophets  of 
Israel.  Like  those  witnesses  for  Jehovah  the  "  little  poor 
man  "  of  Assisi  had  put  on  sackcloth  and  ashes  to  de- 
nounce the  iniquities  of  his  people,  like  theirs  was  his 
courage  and  heroism,  like  theirs  the  divine  tenderness  in 
his  heart. 

It  seemed  as  if  Assisi  were  about  to  recover  again  the 
feeling  of  Israel  for  sin.  The  effect  of  these  appeals  was 
prodigious  ;  the  entire  population  was  thrilled,  conquered, 
desiring  in  future  to  live  only  according  to  Francis's 
counsels  ;  his  very  companions,  who  had  remained  behind 
at  Eivo-Torto,  hearing  of  these  marvels,  felt  in  them- 
selves an  answering  thrill,  and  their  vocation  took  on  a 
new  strength  ;  during  the  night  they  seemed  to  see  their 
master  in  a  chariot  of  fire,  soaring  to  heaven  like  a  new 
Elijah.1 

This  almost  delirious  enthusiasm  of  a  whole  people 
was  not  perhaps  so  difficult  to  arouse  as  might  be  sup- 
posed: the  emotional  power  of  the  masses  was  at  that 
time  as  great  all  over  Europe  as  it  was  in  Paris  during 
certain  days  of  the  Revolution.  We  all  know  the  tragic 
and  touching  story  of  those  companies  of  children  from 
the  north  of  Europe  who  appeared  in  1212  in  troops  of 
several  thousands,  boys  and  girls  mingled  together  pell- 
mell.    Nothing  could  stop  them,  a  mania  had  overtaken 

1  1  Cel.,  47  ;  Bon.,  43. 


RIYO-ÏOKTO 


115 


them,  in  all  good  faith  they  believed  that  they  were  to 
deliver  the  Holy  Laud,  that  the  sea  would  be  dried  up 
to  let  them  pass.  They  perished,  we  hardly  know  how, 
perhaps  beiug  sold  iuto  slavery.1  They  were  accounted 
martyrs,  aud  rightly  ;  popular  devotion  likened  them  to 
the  Holy  Iuuocents,  dying  for  a  God  whom  they  knew 
not.  These  children  of  the  crusade  also  perished  for  an 
unknown  ideal,  false  no  doubt  ;  but  is  it  not  better  to 
die  for  an  unknown  and  even  a  false  ideal  than  to  live 
for  the  vain  realities  of  an  utterly  unpoetic  existence  ?  In 
the  end  of  time  we  shall  be  judged  neither  by  philoso- 
phers nor  by  theologians,  and  if  we  were,  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  even  in  this  case  love  would  cover  a  multitude  of 
sins  and  pass  by  many  follies. 

Certainly  if  ever  there  was  a  time  when  religious  affec- 
tions of  the  nerves  were  to  be  dreaded,  it  was  that  which 
produced  such  movements  as  these.  All  Europe  seemed 
to  be  beside  itself  ;  women  appeared  stark  naked  in  the 
streets  of  towns  and  villages,  slowly  walking  up  and 
down,  silent  as  phantoms.2    We  can  understand  now  the 

1  There  are  few  events  of  the  thirteenth  century  that  offer  more  docu- 
ments or  are  more  obscure  than  this  one.  The  chroniclers  of  the  most 
different  countries  speak  of  it  at  length.  Here  is  one  of  the  shortest  but 
most  exact  of  the  notices,  given  by  an  eye-witness  (Annals  of  Genoa 
of  the  years  1197-1219,  apud  Mon.  Germ.  hist.  Script,  t.  18)  :  1212  in 
mense  Augusti,  die  Sabbati,  octava  Kalendarum  Septembris,  intravit  ciri- 
tatem  Janue  quidam  puer  Teutonicus  nomine  Niclwlaus  peregrinationh 
causa,  et  cum  eo  midtitudo  maxima pelegrinorum  différentes  cruces  et  bor- 
donos  atque  scarsellas  ultra  septem  mUlia  arbitratu  boni  ziri  inter  homines 
et  feminas  et  puettos  et  puéllas.  Et  die  dominica  sequenti  de  civitate 
exierunt. — Cf.  Giacomo  di  Viraggio  :  Muratori,  t.  ix.,  col.  46  :  Dkebant 
quod  mare  debebat  apud  Januam  siccari  et  sic  ipsi  debebant  in  Hierusalem 
proficisci.  Multi  autem  inter  eos  erantfiUi  Xobilium.  quos  ipsi  etiam  cum 
meretricibus  destinarunt  (!)  The  most  tragic  account  is  that  of  Alberic, 
who  relates  the  fate  of  the  company  that  embarked  at  Marseilles.  Mon. 
Ger.  hist.  Script,  t.  23,  p.  894. 

-  The  Benedictine  chronicler,  Albert  von  Stade  (Mon.  Ger.  hist. 
Script,  t.  16,  pp.  271-379),  thus  closes  his  notice  of  the  children's  cru- 


116 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


accounts  which  have  come  down  to  us,  so  fantastic  at  the 
first  glance,  of  certain  popular  orators  of  this  time  ;  of 
Berthold  of  Batisbon,  for  example,  who  drew  together 
crowds  of  sixteen  thousand  persons,  or  of  that  Fra  Gio- 
vanni Schio  di  Vicenza,  who  for  a  time  quieted  all  North- 
ern Italy  and  brought  Guelphs  and  Ghibellines  into  one 
another's  arms.1 

That  popular  eloquence  which  was  to  accomplish  so 
many  marvels  in  1233  comes  down  in  a  straight  line  from 
the  Franciscan  movement.  It  was  St.  Francis  who  set 
the  example  of  those  open-air  sermons  given  in  the  vul- 
gar tongue,  at  street  corners,  in  public  squares,  in  the 
fields. 

To  feel  the  change  which  he  brought  about  we  must 
read  the  sermons  of  his  contemporaries  ;  declamatory, 
scholastic,  subtile,  they  delighted  in  the  minutiae  of  exe- 
gesis or  dogma,  serving  up  refined  dissertations  on  the 
most  obscure  texts  of  the  Old  Testament,  to  hearers  starv- 
ing for  a  simple  and  wholesome  diet. 

With  Francis,  on  the  contrary,  all  is  incisive,  clear, 
practical.  He  pays  no  attention  to  the  precepts  of  the 
rhetoricians,  he  forgets  himself  completely,  thinking  only 
of  the  end  desired,  the  conversion  of  souls.  And  con- 
version was  not  in  his  view  something  vague  and  indis- 
tinct, which  must  take  place  only  between  God  and  the 
hearer.  No,  he  will  have  immediate  and  practical  proofs 
of  conversion.  Men  must  give  up  ill-gotten  gains,  re- 
nounce their  enmities,  be  reconciled  with  their  adver- 
saries. 

sade  :  Adhuc  quo  devenerint  igno-rantur  sed  pktrimi  redierunt,  a  quibus 
cum  quœreretur  causa  cursus  dixerunt  se  nescire.  Nudœ  etiam  mulieres 
circa  idem  tempus  nihil  loquentes  per  villas  et  cimtates  cucurrerunt.  Loc. 
cit. ,  p.  355. 

1  Chron.  Veronese,  aim.  1238  (Mnratori,  Scriptores  Her.  Hal,  t.  viii., 
p.  626).  Cf.  Barbarano  de'  Mironi  :  Hist.  Eccles.  di  Vicenza,  t.  ii.,  pp. 
79-84. 


EIVO-TORTO  117 

At  Assisi  lie  threw  himself  valiantly  into  the  thick  of 
civil  dissensions.  The  agreement  of  1202  between  the 
parties  who  divided  the  city  had  been  wholly  ephemeral. 
The  common  people  were  continually  demanding  new 
liberties,  which  the  nobles  and  burghers  would  yield  to 
them  only  under  the  pressure  of  fear.  Francis  took  up 
the  cause  of  the  weak,  the  minores,  and  succeeded  in  rec- 
onciling them  with  the  rich,  the  majores. 
/His  spiritual  family  had  not  as  yet,  properly  speaking, 
a  name,  for,  unlike  those  too  hasty  spirits  who  baptize 
their  productions  before  they  have  come  to  light,  he 
was  waiting  for  the  occasion  that  should  reveal  the  true 
name  which  he  ought  to  give  it.1  One  day  someone  was 
reading  the  Rule  in  his  presence.  When  he  came,  to  the 
passage,  "  Let  the  brethren,  wherever  they  may  find  them- 
selves called  to  labor  or  to  serve,  never  take  an  office 
which  shall  put  them  over  others,  but  on  the  contrary, 
let  them  be  always  under  (sint  minores)  all  those  who 
may  be  in  that  house,"  2  these  words  sint  minores  of  the 
Rule,  in  the  circumstances  then  existing  in  the  city, 
suddenly  appeared  to  him  as  a  providential  indication. 
His  institution  should  be  called  the  Order  of  the  Brothers 
Minors 

We  may  imagine  the  effect  of  this  determination.  The 
Saint,  for  already  this  magic  word  had  burst  forth  where 
he  appeared,3  the  Saint  had  spoken.  It  was  he  who  was 
about  to  bring  peace  to  the  city,  acting  as  arbiter  be- 
tween the  two  factions  which  rent  it. 

We  still  possess  the  document  of  this  pace  civile,  ex- 

1  The  Brothers  were  at  first  called  Yiri  pœnitentiales  de  civitate  As- 
sisii  (3  Soc,  3T)  ;  it  appears  that  they  had  a  momentary  thought  of  call- 
ing themselves  Pauperes  de  Assisio,  hut  they  were  doubtless  dissuaded 
from  this  at  Eome,  as  too  closely  resembling  that  of  the  Pauperes  de 
Lvgduno.    Vide  Burchardi  chronicon. ,  p.  376  ;  vide  Introd.,  cap.  5. 

2  Vide  Rule  of  1221,  cap.  7.    Cf.  1  Cel.,  38,  and  Bon.,  78. 

3  1  Cel.,  36. 


118 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


hum  eel,  so  to  speak,  from  the  communal  archives  of  As- 
sisi  by  the  learned  and  pious  Antonio  Cristofani.1  The 
opening  lines  are  as  follows  : 

"  In  the  name  of  God  ! 

'  '  May  the  supreme  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit  assist  us  !  To  the  honor 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  blessed  Virgin  Mary,  the  Emperor  Otho, 
and  Duke  Leopold. 

"This  is  the  statute  and  perpetual  agreement  between  the  Majori  and 
Minori  of  Assisi. 

"  Without  common  consent  there  shall  never  be  any  sort  of  alliance 
either  with  the  pope  and  his  nuncios  or  legates,  or  with  the  emperor, 
or  with  the  king,  or  with  their  nuncios  or  legates,  or  with  any  city  or 
town,  or  with  any  important  person,  except  with  a  common  accord  they 
shall  do  all  which  there  may  be  to  do  for  the  honor,  safety,  and  advan- 
tage of  the  commune  of  Assisi." 

What  follows  is  worthy  of  the  beginning.  The  lords, 
in  consideration  of  a  small  periodical  payment,  should 
renounce  all  the  feudal  rights  ;  the  inhabitants  of  the 
villages  subject  to  Assisi  were  put  on  a  par  with  those 
of  the  city,  foreigners  were  protected,  the  assessment  of 
taxes  was  fixed.  On  Wednesday,  November  9, 1210,  this 
agreement  was  signed  and  sworn  to  in  the  public  place 
of  Assisi  ;  it  was  made  in  such  good  faith  that  exiles  were 
able  to  return  in  peace,  and  from  this  day  Ave  find  in  the 
city  registers  the  names  of  those  êmvjrès  who,  in  1202, 
had  betrayed  their  city  and  provoked  the  disastrous  war 
with  Perugia.  Francis  might  well  be  happy.  Love  had 
triumphed,  and  for  several  years  there  were  at  Assisi 
neither  victors  nor  vanquished. 

In  the  mystic  marriages  which  here  and  there  in  his- 
tory unite  a  man  to  a  people,  something  takes  place  of 
which  the  transports  of  sense,  the  delirium  of  love,  seem 
to  be  the  only  symbol  ;  a  moment  comes  in  which  saints, 


1  Storia  & Assisi,  t.  i.,  pp.  123-129. 


RIVO-TORTO 


119 


or  men  of  genius,  feel  unknown  powers  striving  mightily 
within  them  ;  they  strive,  they  seek,  they  struggle  until, 
triumphing  over  all  obstacles,  they  have  forced  trembling, 
swooning  humanity  to  conceive  by  them. 
This  moment  had  come  to  St.  Francis. 


CHAPTEE  VIII 


PORTIUNCULA 
1211 

It  was  doubtless  toward  the  spring  of  1211  that  the 
Brothers  quitted  Bivo-Torto.  They  were  engaged  in 
prayer  one  day,  when  a  peasant  appeared  with  an  ass, 
which  he  noisily  drove  before  him  into  the  poor  shelter. 

"  Go  in,  go  in!"  he  cried  to  his  beast;  "we  shall  be 
most  comfortable  here."  It  appeared  that  he  was  afraid 
that  if  the  Brothers  remained  there  much  longer  they 
would  begin  to  think  this  deserted  place  was  their  own.1 
Such  rudeness  was  very  displeasing  to  Francis,  who  im- 
mediately arose  and  departed,  followed  by  his  compan- 
ions. 

Now  that  they  were  so  numerous  the  Brothers  could 
no  longer  continue  their  wandering  life  in  all  respects  as 
in  the  past;  they  had  need  of  a  permanent  shelter  and 
above  all  of  a  little  chapel.  The}T  addressed  themselves 
in  vain  first  to  the  bishop  and  then  to  the  canons  of  San 
Kufino  for  the  loan  of  what  they  needed,  but  were  more 
fortunate  with  the  abbot  of  the  Benedictines  of  Mount 
Subasio,  who  ceded  to  them  in  perpetuity  the  use  of  a 
chapel  already  very  dear  to  their  hearts,  Santa  Maria  degli 
Angeli  or  the  Portiuncula.* 

Francis  was  enchanted;  he  saw  a  mysterious  harmo- 

1  1  Cel.,  44  ;  3  Soc,  55. 

23Soc,  56;  Spec,  32b;  Conform.,  21Tb,  1;  Fior.  Bill.  Angel, 
Amoni,  p.  378. 


PORTIUKCULA 


321 


ny,  ordained  by  God  himself,  between  the  name  of  the 
humble  sanctuary  and  that  of  his  Order.  The  brethren 
quickly  built  for  themselves  a  few  huts  ;  a  quickset  hedge 
served  as  enclosing  wall,  and  thus  in  three  or  four  days 
was  organized  the  first  Franciscan  convent. 

For  ten  years  they  were  satisfied  with  this.  These  ten 
years  are  the  heroic  period  of  the  Order.  St.  Francis,  in 
full  possession  of  his  ideal,  will  seek  to  inculcate  it  upon 
his  disciples  and  will  succeed  sometimes  ;  but  already  the 
too  rapid  multiplication  of  the  brotherhood  will  provoke 
some  symptoms  of  relaxation. 

The  remembrance  of  the  beginning  of  this  period  has 
drawn  from  the  lips  of  Thomas  of  Celano  a  sort  of  can- 
ticle in  honor  of  the  monastic  life.  It  is  the  burning  and 
untranslatable  commentary  of  the  Psalmist's  cry  :  "Behold 
how  sweet  and  pleasant  it  is  to  be  brethren  and  to  dwell  to- 
gether''' 

Their  cloister  was  the  forest  which  then  extended  on  all 
sides  of  Portiuncula,  occupying  a  large  part  of  the  plain. 
There  they  gathered  around  their  master  to  receive  his 
spiritual  counsels,  and  thither  they  retired  to  meditate 
and  pray.1  It  would  be  a  gross  mistake,  however,  to  sup- 
pose that  contemplation  absorbed  them  completely  dur- 
ing the  days  which  were  not  consecrated  to  missionary 
tours  :  a  part  of  their  time  was  spent  in  manual  labor. 

The  intentions  of  St.  Francis  have  been  more  misap- 
prehended on  this  point  than  on  any  other,  but  it  may  be 
said  that  nowhere  is  he  more  clear  than  when  he  ordains 
that  his  friars  shall  gain  their  livelihood  by  the  work  of 
their  hands.  He  never  dreamed  of  creating  a  mendicant 
order,  he  created  a  laboring  order.  It  is  true  we  shall 
often  see  him  begging  and  urging  his  disciples  to  do  as 
much,  but  these  incidents  ought  not  to  mislead  us  ;  they 

1  This  forest  has  disappeared.  Some  of  Francis's  counsels  have.been 
collected  in  the  Admonitions.    See  1  Cel.,  37-41. 


122 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


are  meant  to  teach  that  when  a  friar  arrived  in  any 
locality  and  there  spent  his  strength  for  long  days  in 
dispensing  spiritual  bread  to  famished  souls,  he  ought 
not  to  blush  to  receive  material  bread  in  exchange.  To 
work  was  the  rule,  to  beg  the  exception  ;  but  this  excep- 
tion was  in  nowise  dishonorable.  Did  not  Jesus,  the 
Virgin,  the  disciples  live  on  bread  bestowed  ?  AVas  it 
not  rendering  a  great  service  to  those  to  whom  they  re- 
sorted to  teach  them  charity  ? 

Francis  in  his  poetic  language  gave  the  name  of  meiisa 
Domini,  the  table  of  the  Lord,  to  this  table  of  love 
around  which  gathered  the  little  poor  ours.  The  bread 
of  charity  is  the  bread  of  angels  ;  and  it  is  also  that  of  the 
birds,  which  reap  not  nor  gather  into  barns. 

We  arc  far  enough,  in  this  case,  from  that  mendicity 
which  is  understood  as  a  means  of  existence  and  the 
essential  condition  of  a  life  of  idleness.  It  is  the  oppo- 
site extreme,  and  we  are  true  and  just  to  St.  Francis  and 
to  the  origin  of  the  mendicant  orders  only  when  we  do 
not  separate  the  obligation  of  labor  from  the  praise  of 
mendicity.1 

No  doubt  this  zeal  did  not  last  long,  and  Thomas  of 
Celano  already  entitles  his  chapters,  "  Lament  before  God 
or<  r  the  idleness  and  gluttony  of  the  f  riars  ;"  but  we  must 
not  permit  this  speedy  and  inevitable  decadence  to  veil 
from  our  sight  the  holy  and  manly  beauty  of  the  origin. 

With  all  his  gentleness  Francis  knew  how  to  show  an 
inflexible  severity  toward  the  idle  ;  he  even  went  so  far 
as  to  dismiss  a  friar  who  refused  to  work.-    Nothing  in 

1  Vide  Angelo  Clareno,  Tribul.  cod.  Laur. ,  3b. 

2  2  Cel.,  8,  97  and  98.  The  Conformities,  142a,  1,  cite  textually  97 
as  coming  from  the  Legenda  Antigua.  Cf.  Spec,  64b. — 2  Cel.,  3,  21. 
Cf.  Conform,,  171a,  1  ;  Spec.,  19b.  See  especially  Rule  of  1221,  cap.  7  ; 
Rule  of  1223,  cap.  5;  the  Will  and  3  Soc.  41.  The  passage,  liceat  eis 
habere  ferramenta  et  instrumenta  suis  artibuê  necessaria,  sufficiently 
proves  that  certain  friars  had  real  trades. 


PORTIUNCULA 


123 


this  matter  better  shows  the  intentions  of  the  Poverello 
than  the  life  of  Brother  Egidio,  one  of  his  dearest  com- 
panions, him  of  whom  he  said  with  a  smile  :  "  He  is  one 
of  the  paladins  of  my  Round  Table." 

Brother  Egidio  had  a  taste  for  great  adventures,  and  is 
a  living  exainjiLe  of  a  Franciscan  of  the  earliest  days  ;  he 
survived  his  master  twenty-rive  years,  and  never  ceased 
to  obey  the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  Rule  with  freedom  and 
simplicity. 

We  find  him  one  day  setting  out  on  a  pilgrimage  to 
the  Holy  Land.  Arrived  at  Brindisi,  he  borrowed  a 
water-jug  that  he  might  carry  water  while  he  was  awaiting 
the  departure  of  the  ship,  and  passed  a  part  of  every 
day  in  crying  through  the  streets  of  the  city  :  "  Alia 
fresco.  !  Allafresca  /"  like  other  water-carriers.  But  he 
would  change  his  trade  according  to  the  country  and  the 
circumstances  ;  on  his  way  back,  at  Ancona,  he  procured 
willow  for  making  baskets,  which  he  afterward  sold,  not 
for  money  but  for  his  food.  It  even  happened  to  him  to 
be  employed  in  burying  the  dead. 

Sent  to  Borne,  every  morning  after  finishing  his  relig- 
ious duties,  he  would  take  a  walk  of  several  leagues,  to 
a  certain  forest,  whence  he  brought  a  load  of  wood. 
Coming  back  one  day  he  met  a  lady  who  wanted  to  buy 
it  ;  they  agreed  on  a  price,  and  Egidio  carried  it  to  her 
house.  But  when  he  arrived  at  the  house  she  perceived 
him  to  be  a  friar,  and  would  have  given  him  more  than 
the  price  agreed  upon.  "  My  good  lady,"  he  replied, 
"  I  will  not  permit  myself  to  be  overcome  by  avarice," 
and  he  departed  without  accepting  anything  at  all. 

In  the  olive  season  he  helped  in  the  gathering  ;  in  grape 
season  he  offered  himself  as  vintager.  One  day  on  the 
Piazza  di  Roma,  where  men  are  hired  for  day's  work,  he 
saw  a  padrone  who  could  not  find  a  man  to  thrash  his 
walnut  trep  :  it  was  so  high  that  no  one  dared  risk  him- 


124 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


self  in  it.  "  If  you  will  give  me  part  of  the  nuts,"  said 
Egidio,  "I  will  do  it  willingly."  The  bargain  struck  and 
the  tree  thrashed,  there  proved  to  be  so  many  nuts  that 
he  did  not  know  where  to  put  his  share.  Gathering  up 
his  tunic  he  made  a  bag  of  it  and  full  of  joy  returned  to 
Rome,  where  he  distributed  them  among  all  the  poor 
whom  he  met. 

Is  not  this  a  charming  incident  ?  Does  it  not  by  it- 
self alone  reveal  the  freshness,  the  youth,  the  kindness 
of  heart  of  the  first  Franciscans  ?  There  is  no  end  to 
the  stories  of  the  ingenuousness  of  Brother  Egidio.  All 
kinds  of  work  seemed  good  to  him  provided  he  had  time 
enough  in  the  morning  for  his  religious  duties.  Now  he 
is  in  the  service  of  the  Cellarer  of  the  Four  Crowns  at 
Rome,  sifting  flour  and  carrying  water  to  the  convent 
from  the  well  of  San  Sisto.  Now  he  is  at  Rieti,  where 
he  consents  to  remain  with  Cardinal  Nicholas,  bringing 
to  every  meal  the  bread  which  he  had  earned,  notwith- 
standing the  entreaties  of  the  master  of  the  house,  who 
would  gladly  have  provided  for  his  wants.  One  day  it 
rained  so  hard  that  Brother  Egidio__could  not  think 
of  going  out  ;  the  cardinal  was  already  making  merry 
over  the  thought  that  he  would  be  forced  to  accept  bread 
that  he  had  not  earned.  But  Egidio  went  to  the  kitchen, 
and  finding  that  it  needed  cleaning  he  persuaded  the 
cook  to  let  him  sweep  it,  and  returned  triumphant 
with  the  bread  lie  had  earned,  which  he  ate  at  the  car- 
dinal's table.1 

From  the  very  beginning  Egidio's  life  commanded  re- 
spect ;  it  was  at  once  so  original,  so  gay,  so  spiritual,*2 

1  A.  SS.,  Aprilis.  t.  iii.,  pp.  220-248;  Fior.  Vita  cV Egidio;  Spec, 
158  ff  ;  Conform.,  53-60. 

'2  Other  examples  will  be  found  below  ;  it  may  suffice  to  recall  here 
his  sally  :  "The  glorious  Virgin  Mother  of  God  had  sinners  for  par- 
ents, she  never  entered  any  religious  order,  and  yet  she  is  what  she 
is  !  "  A.  SS..  loc.  cit.,  p.  234.* 


PORTIUNCULÀ 


125 


and  so  mystical,  that  even  in  the  least  exact  and  most 
expanded  accounts  his  legend  has  remained  almost  free 
from  all  addition.  He  is,  after  St.  Francis,  the  finest 
incarnation  of  the  Franciscan  spirit. 

The  incidents  which  are  here  cited  are  all,  so  to  speak, 
illustrations  of  the  Fade  ;  in  fact  there  is  nothing  more 
explicit  than  its  commands  with  respect  to  work. 

The  Brothers,  after  entering  upon  the  Order,  were  to 
continue  to  exercise  the  calling  which  they  had  when  in 
the  world,  and  if  they  had  none  they  were  to  learn  one. 
For  payment  they  were  to  accept  only  the  food  that  was 
necessary  for  them,  but  in  case  that  was  insufficient  they 
might  beg.  In  addition  they  were  naturally  permitted 
to  own  the  instruments  of  their  calling.1  Brother  Gin- 
epro,  whose  acquaintance  we  shall  make  further  on,  had 
an  awl,  and  gained  his  bread  wherever  he  went  by 
mending  shoes,  and  we  see  St.  Clara  working  even  on 
her  death-bed. 

This  obligation  to  work  with  the  hands  merits  all  the 
more  to  be  brought  into  the  light,  because  it  was  des- 
tined hardly  to  survive  St.  Francis,  and  because  to  it  is 
due  in  part  the  original  character  of  the  first  generation 
of  the  Order.  Yet  this  was  not  the  real  reason  for  the 
being  of  the  Brothers  Minor.  Their  mission  consisted 
above  all  in  being  the  spouses  of  Poverty. 

Terrified  by  the  ecclesiastical  disorders  of  the  time, 
haunted  by  painful  memories  of  his  past  life.  Francis 
saw  in  money  the  special  instrument  of  the  devil  ;  in 
moments  of  excitement  he  went  so  far  as  to  execrate  it, 

1  The  passage  of  the  Will,  firmiter  rolo  quod  omnes  laborent,  .  .  . 
has  a  capital  importance  because  it  shows  Francis  renewing  in  the  most 
solemn  manner  injunctions  already  made  from  the  origin  of  the  Order. 
Cf.  1  Cel.,  38  and  39;  Conform.,  219b.  1  :  Juvabant  Fratres  pauperes 
homines  in  agris  eorum  et  ipti  dabant  postea  eis  de  pane  amove  Dei.  Spec., 
34;  69.  Vide  also  Archie.,  t.  ii.,  pp.  272  and  299;  Ecclestcn,  1  and 
15;  2  Cel..  1,  12. 


120 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


as  if  there  had  been  in  the  metal  itself  a  sort  of  magical 
power  and  secret  curse.  Money  was  truly  for  him  the 
sacrament  of  evil. 

This  is  not  the  place  for  asking  if  he  was  wrong  ;  grave 
authors  have  demonstrated  at  length  the  economic  troub- 
les which  would  have  been  let  loose  upon  the  world  if 
men  had  followed  him.  Alas  !  his  madness,  if  madness  it 
were,  is  a  hind  of  which  one  need  not  fear  the  contagion. 

He  felt  that  in  this  respect  the  Eule  could  not  be 
too  absolute,  and  that  if  unfortunately  the  door  was 
opened  to  various  interpretations  of  it,  there  would  be 
no  stopping-point.  The  course  of  events  and  the  period- 
ical convulsions  which  shook  his  Order  show  clearly 
enough  how  rightly  he  judged. 

I  do  not  know  nor  desire  to  know  if  theologians  have 
yet  come  to  a  scientific  conclusion  with  regard  to  the 
poverty  of  Jesus,  but  it  seems  evident  to  me  that  poverty 
with  the  labor  of  the  hands  is  the  ideal  held  up  by  the 
Galilean  to  the  efforts  of  his  disciples. 

Still  it  is  easy  to  see  that  Franciscan  poverty  is  neither 
to  be  confounded  with  the  unfeeling  pride  of  the  stoic, 
nor  with  the  stupid  horror  of  all  joy  felt  by  certain  devo- 
tees ;  St.  Francis  renounced  everything  only  that  he 
might  the  better  possess  everything.  The  lives  of  the 
immense  majority  of  our  contemporaries  are  ruled  by  the 
fatal  error  that  the  more  one  possesses  the  more  one  en- 
joys. Our  exterior,  civil  liberties  continually  increase, 
but  at  the  same  time  our  inward  freedom  is  taking  flight  ; 
how  many  are  there  among  us  who  are  literally  possessed 
by  what  they  possess  ?  1 
/*  Poverty  not  only  permitted  the  Brothers  to  mingle  with 
the  poor  and  speak  to  them  with  authority,  but,  remov- 
ing from  them  all  material  anxiety,  it  left  them  free  to 

1  Nihil  wlebat  proprietatis  habere  ut  omnia  plent 'us  posset  in  Domino 
possidere.    B.  de  Besse,  102a. 


PORTIUXCCLA 


12? 


enjoy  without  hindrance  those  hidden  treasures  which 
nature  reserves  for  pure  idealists^ 

The  ever-thickening  barriers  which  modern  life,  with 
its  sickly  search  for  useless  comfort,  has  set  up  between 
us  and  nature  did  not  exist  for  these  men,  so  full  of 
youth  and  life,  eager  for  wide  spaces  and  the  outer  air. 
This  is  what  gave  St.  Francis  and  his  companions  that 
quick  susceptibility  to  Nature  which  made  them  thrill 
in  mysterious  harmony  with  her.  Their  communion 
with  Nature  was  so  intimate,  so  ardent,  that  ITmbria,  with 
the  harmonious  poetry  of  its  skies,  the  joyful  outburst  of 
its  spring-time,  is  still  the  best  document  from  which  to 
study  them.  The  tie  between  the  two  is  so  indissoluble, 
that  after  having  lived  a  certain  time  in  company  with 
St.  Francis,  one  can  hardly,  on  reading  certain  passages 
of  his  biographers,  help  seeing  the  spot  where  the  inci- 
dent took  place,  hearing  the  vague  sounds  of  creatures 
and  things,  precisely  as,  when  reading  certain  pages  of  a 
beloved  author,  one  hears  the  sound  of  his  voice. 

The  worship  of  Poverty  of  the  early  Franciscans  had 
in  it,  then,  nothing  ascetic  or  barbarous,  nothing  which  re- 
calls the  Stylites  or  the  Xazirs.  She  Avas  their  bride,  and 
like  true  lovers  they  felt  no  fatigues  which  they  might 
endure  to  find  and  remain  near  her. 

La  lor  concordia  e  lor  lieti  sembianti, 
Amor  e  maraviglia  e  dolce  sguardo 
Facean  esser  cagion  de'  pensier  sauti.1 

To  drawr  the  portrait  of  an  ideal  knight  at  the  begin- 
ning' of  the  thirteenth  century  is  to  draw  Francis's  very 
portrait,  with  this  difference,  that  what  the  knight  did  for 

1  Their  concord  and  their  joyous  semblances 
The  lore,  the  wonder  and  the  sweet  regard 
They  made  to  be  the  cause  of  holy  thought. 

Da^te  :  Paradiso.  canto  xi.,  verses  76-78. 
Longfellow's  translation. 


128 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


his  lady,  lie  did  for  Poverty.  This  comparison  is  not 
a  mere  caprice;  lie  himself  profoundly  felt  it  and  ex- 
pressed it  with  perfect  clearness,  and  it  is  only  by  keep- 
ing it  clearly  present  in  the  mind  that  we  can  see  into 
the  very  depth  of  his  heart.1 

To  find  any  other  souls  of  the  same  nature  one  mnst 
come  down  to  Giovanni  di  Parma  and  Jacoponi  di  Todi. 
The  life  of  St.  Francis  as  troubadour  has  been  written  ; 
it  would  have  been  better  to  write  it  as  knight,  for  this  is 
the  explanation  of  his  whole  life,  and  as  it  were  the  heart 
of  his  heart.  From  the  day  when,  forgetting  the  songs 
of  his  friends  and  suddenly  stopped  in  the  public  place 
of  Assisi,  he  met  Poverty,  his  bride,  and  swore  to  her 
faith  and  love,  down  to  that  evening  when,  naked  upon 
the  naked  earth  of  Portiuncula,  he  breathed  out  his  life, 
it  may  be  said  that  all  his  thoughts  went  out  to  this  lady 
of  his  chaste  loves.  For  twenty  years  he  served  her  with- 
out faltering,  sometimes  with  an  artlessness  which  would 
appear  infantine,  if  something  infinitely  sincere  and  sub- 
lime did  not  arrest  the  smile  upon  the  most  sceptical  lips. 

Poverty  agreed  marvellously  with  that  need  which  men 
had  at  that  time,  and  which  perhaps  they  have  lost  less 
than  they  suppose,  the  need  of  an  ideal  very  high,  very 
pure,  mysterious,  inaccessible,  which  yet  they  may  pict- 
ure to  themselves  in  concrete  form.  Sometimes  a  few 
privileged  disciples  saw  the  lovely  and  pure  Lady  descend 
from  heaven  to  salute  her  spouse,  but,  whether  visible  or 
not,  she  always  kept  close  beside  her  Umbrian  lover,  as 
she  kept  close  beside  the  Galilean  ;  in  the  stable  of  the 
nativity,  upon  the  cross  at  Golgotha,  and  even  in  the 
borrowed  tomb  where  his  body  lay. 

During  several  years  this  ideal  was  not  alone  that 
of  St.  Francis,  but  also  of  all  the  Brothers.    In  pov- 

1  Amor  f actus  .  .  .  castis  earn,  stringit  amplexibiis  nec  ad  lioram 
patitur  von  esse  maritus.  2  Cel.,  3,  1  ;  cf.l  Cel.,  35  ;  51  ;  75  ;  2  Cel., 
3,  128  ;  3  Soc...  15  ;  22  ;  33  ;  35  ;  50  ;  Bon.,  87  ;  Fior. ,  13. 


POBTIUNCULA 


129 


erty  the  genie  poverette  had  found  safety,  love,  liberty  ; 
and  all  the  efforts  of  the  new  apostles  are  directed  to 
the  keeping  of  this  precious  treasure. 

Their  worship  sometimes  might  seem  excessive.  They 
showed  their  spouse  those  delicate  attentions,  those  re- 
finements of  courtesy  so  frequent  in  the  morning  light  of 
a  betrothal,  but  which  one  gradually  forgets  till  they 
become  incomprehensible. 1 

The  number  of  disciples  continually  increased  ;  almost 
every  week  brought  new  recruits;  the  year  1211  was 
without  doubt  devoted  by  Francis  to  a  tour  in  Umbria 
and  the  neighboring  provinces.  His  sermons  were  short 
appeals  to  conscience  ;  his  heart  went  out  to  his  hearers 
in  ineffable  tones,  so  that  when  men  tried  to  repeat 
what  they  had  heard  they  found  themselves  incapable.2 
The  Rule  of  1221  has  preserved  for  us  a  summary  of 
these  appeals  : 

"  Here  is  an  exhortation  which  all  the  Brothers  may  make  when  they 
think  best  :  Fear  and  honor  God,  praise  and  bless  him.  Give  thanks 
unto  him.  Adore  the  Lord,  Almighty  God.  in  Trinity  and  unity,  the 
Father,  the  Son.  and  the  Holy  Ghost.  Eepent  and  make  fruits  meet 
for  repentance,  for  you  know  that  we  shall  soon  die.  Give,  and  it; 
shall  be  given  unto  you.  Forgive,  and  you  shall  be  forgiven  ;  for  if 
you  forgive  not,  God  will  not  forgive  you.  Blessed  are  they  who  die 
repenting,  for  they  shall  be  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  .  .  .  Ab- 
stain carefully  from  all  evil,  and  persevere  in  the  good  until  the  end."' 3 

We  see  how  simple  and  purely  ethical  was  the  early 
Franciscan  preaching.  The  complications  of  dogma  and 
scholasticism  are  entirely  absent  from  it.  To  understand 
how  new  this  was  and  how  refreshing  to  the  soul  we 
must  study  the  disciples  that  came  after  him. 

]Bon.,  93. — ProMbuit  fratrem  qui  factebat  coquinam  ne  poneret  legu- 
mina  de  sero  in  aqua  calida  quœ  débébat  dare  fratrihus  ad  manducan- 
dum  die  sequenti  ut  observaverint  illud  verbum  Evavgelii  :  Isolite  sdlliciii 
esse  de  crastino.    Spec,  15.  2 2  Cel.,  3.  50. 

3  Gap.,  21.  Cf.  Fior.,  I.  consid.,  18  ;  30  ;  Conform.,  103a,  2  ;  2  Cel., 
3.  99  ;  100  ;  121.    Vide  MfUler,  Anfânge,  p.  187. 


130 


LIFE  OP'  ST.  FRANCIS 


With  St.  Anthony  of  Padua  (►>  June  13,  1231  ;  canon- 
ized in  1233  '),  the  most  illustrious  of  them  all,  the  descent 
is  immense.  The  distance  between  these  two  men  is  as 
great  as  that  which  separates  Jesus  from  St.  Paul. 

I  do  not  judge  the  disciple  ;  he  was  of  his  time  in  not 
knowing  how  to  say  simply  what  he  thought,  in  always 
desiring  to  subtilize  it,  to  extract  it  from  passages  in  tli3 
Bible  turned  from  their  natural  meaning  by  efforts  at 
once  laborious  and  puerile  ;  what  the  alchemists  did  in 
their  continual  making  of  strange  mixtures  from  which 
they  fancied  that  they  should  bring  out  gold,  the  preach- 
ers did  to  the  texts,  in  order  to  bring  out  the  truth. 

The  originality  of  St.  Francis  is  only  the  more  brilliant 
and  meritorious  ;  with  him  gospel  simplicity  reappeared 
upon  the  earth.'2  Like  the  lark  with  which  he  so  much 
loved  to  compare  himself,8  he  was  at  his  ease  only  in  the 
open  sky.  He  remained  thus  until  his  death.  The 
epistle  to  all  Christians  which  he  dictated  in  the  last 
weeks  of  his  life  repeats  the  same  ideas  in  the  same 
terms,  perhaps  with  a  little  more  feeling  and  a  shade  of 
sadness.  The  evening  breeze  which  breathed  upon  his 
face  and  bore  away  his  words  was  their  symbolical  ac- 
companiment. 

1  Vide  his  Opera  omnia  postilUs  illusttrata,  by  Father  de  la  Haye, 
1739,  f\  For  his  life,  Sarins  and  Wadding  arranged  and  mutilated  the 
sources  to  which  they  had  access  ;  the  Bollandists  had  only  a  legend  of 
the  fifteenth  century.  The  Latin  manuscript  14,363  of  the  Bibliothèque 
Nationale  gives  one  which  dates  from  the  thirteenth.  Very  Rev.  Father 
Hilary,  of  Paris  :  Saint  Antoine  de  Padonc,  sa  légende  primitive,  Mon- 
treuil-sur-Mer,  Imprimerie  Notre-Dame-des-Prés,  1890,  1  vol.,  8vo.  Cf. 
Legenda  seu  vita  et  miracula  S.  Antonii  sœculo  xiii  concinnata  ex  cod. 
memb.  antoninœ  bibliotliecœ  a  P.  M.  Antonio  Maria  Josa  inin.  comv, 
Bologna,  1883,  1  vol.,  8vo. 

2  This  evangelical  character  of  his  mission  is  brought  out  in  relief 
by  all  bis  biographers.  1  Cel.  56  ;  84  ;  89  ;  3  Soc.  25  ;  34;  40  ;  43  ;  45  ; 
48  ;  51  ;  57  ;  2  Cel.  3.  8  ;  50  :  93. 

3  Spec,,  134;  2  Cel.,  3,  128. 


PORTIUXCULA 


131 


"  I,  Brother  Francis,  the  least  of  your  servants,  pray 
and  conjure  you  by  that  Love  which  is  God  himself, 
willing  to  throw  myself  at  your  feet  and  kiss  them,  to 
receive  with  humility  and  love  these  words  and  all  others 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  to  put  them  to  profit  and  carry 
them  out." 

This  was  not  a  more  or  less  oratorical  formula.  Hence 
conversions  multiplied  with  an  incredible  rapidity.  Often, 
as  formerly  with  Jesus,  a  look,  a  word  sufficed  Francis 
to  attach  to  himself  men  who  would  follow  him  until 
their  death.  It  is  impossible,  alas  !  to  analyze  the  best 
of  this  eloquence,  all  made  of  love,  intimate  apprehension, 
and  fire.  The  written  word  can  no  more  give  an  idea  of 
it  than  it  can  give  us  an  idea  of  a  sonata  of  Beethoven 
or  a  painting  by  Rembrandt.  "We  are  often  amazed,  on 
reading  the  memoirs  of  those  who  have  been  great  con- 
querors of  souls,  to  find  ourselves  remaining  cold,  finding 
in  them  all  no  trace  of  animation  or  originality.  It  is  be- 
cause we  have  only  a  lifeless  relic  in  the  hand  ;  the  soul  is 
gone.  It  is  the  white  wafer  of  the  sacrament,  but  how 
shall  that  rouse  in  us  the  emotions  of  the  beloved  dis- 
ciple lying  on  the  Lord's  breast  on  the  night  of  the  Last 
Supper  ? 

The  class  from  which  Francis  recruited  his  disciples 
was  still  about  the  same  ;  they  were  nearly  all  young 
men  of  Assisi  and  its  environs,  some  the  sons  of  agri- 
culturists, and  others  nobles  ;  the  School  and  the  Church 
was  very  little  represented  among  them.1 

1  The  Order  was  at  first  essentially  lay  (at  the- present  time  it  is,  so  far 
as  I  know,  the  only  one  in  which  there  is  no  difference  of  costume  be- 
tween laymen  and  priests).  Vide  Ehrle,  Arcliiv.,  iii.,  p.  563.  It  is  the 
influence  of  the  friars  from  northern  countries  which  has  especially 
changed  it  in  this  matter.  General  Ay  mon,  of  Faversham  (1240-1243), 
decided  that  laymen  should  be  excluded  from  all  charges  ;  laicos  ad 
officia  inhabUUaùt,  quae,  usque  tunc  ut  clerki  e.rercebant.  {Chron.  xxiv. 
gen.  cod.  Gadd.  relig. .  53,  f:  110a).    Among  the  early  Brothers  who 


182 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Everything  still  went  on  with  an  unheard-of  simplic- 
ity. In  theory,  obedience  to  the  superior  was  absolute  ; 
in  practice,  we  can  see  Francis  continually  giving  his  com- 
panions complete  liberty  of  action.1  Men  entered  the 
Order  without  a  novitiate  of  any  sort  ;  it  sufficed  to  say 
to  Francis  that  they  wanted  to  lead  with  him  a  life  of 
evangelical  perfection,  and  to  prove  it  by  giving  all  that 
they  possessed  to  the  poor.  The  more  unpretending 
were  the  neophytes,  the  more  tenderness  he  had  for 
them.  Like  his  Master,  he  had  a  partiality  for  those 
who  were  lost,  for  men  whom  regular  society  casts  out  of 
its  limits,  but  who  with  all  their  crimes  and  scandals  are 
nearer  to  sainthood  than  mediocrities  and  hypocrites. 

One  day  St.  Francis,  passing  by  the  desert  of  Borgo  San  Sepolcro 
came  to  a  place  called  Monte -Casale,'2  and  behold  a  noble  and  refined 
young  man  came  to  him.  li  Father,"  he  said.  "  I  would  gladly  be  one 
of  your  disciples." 

"  My  son,"  said  St.  Francis,  tc  you  are  young,  refined,  and  noble  ;  you 
will  not  be  able  to  follow  poverty  and  live  wretched  like  us." 

"  But,  my  father,  are  not  you  men  like  me  ?  What  you  do  I  can  do 
with  the  grace  of  Jesus.''  This  reply  was  well-pleasing  to  St.  Francis, 
who,  giving  him  his  blessing,  incontinently  received  him  into  the  Order 
under  the  name  of  Brother  Angelo. 

He  conducted  himself  so  well  that  a  little  while  after  he  was  made 


refused  ordination  there  were  surely  some  who  did  so  from  humility, 
but  this  sentiment  is  not  enough  to  explain  all  the  cases.  There  were 
also  with  certain  of  them  revolutionary  desires  and  as  it  were  a  vague 
memory  of  the  prophecies  of  Gioacchino  di  Fiore  upon  the  age  succeed- 
ing that  of  the  priests  :  Fior.,  27.  Frate  Pellegrino  non  voile  mai 
andare  come  cliierico,  ma  come  laico,  benclie  fassi  molto  litterato  e  grande 
decretalista.  Cf.  Conform.,  71a.,  2.  F 'r.  Thomas  Hibernicus  sibi 
pollecem  amputavil  ne  ad  sacerdotium  cogeretur.   Conform. ,  124b,  2. 

'  See,  for  example,  the  letter  to  Brother  Leo.  Cf.  Conform.,  53b,  2. 
Fratri  Egidio  dedit  licentiam  liberam  ut  iret  quocumque  vellet  et  star  et 
ubicumque  sibi  placer  et. 

a  The  hermitage  of  Monte-Casale,  at  two  hours  walk  northeast  from 
Borgo  San  Sepolcro,  still  exists  in  its  original  state.  It  is  one  of  the  most 
significant  and  curious  of  the  Franciscan  deserts. 


PORTIUXCULA 


guardian  1  of  Monte-Casale.  Xow,  in  those  times  tliere  were  three 
famous  robbers  who  did  much  evil  in  the  country.  The}-  came  to  the 
hermitage  one  day  to  beg  Brother  Angelo  to  give  them  something  to 
eat  ;  but  he  replied  to  them  with  severe  reproaches  :  "  What  !  robbers, 
evil-doers,  assassins,  have  you  not  only  no  shame  for  stealing  the  goods 
of  others,  but  you  would  farther  devour  the  alms  of  the  servants  of 
God,  you  who  are  not  worthy  to  live,  and  who  have  respect  neither 
for  men  nor  for  God  your  Creator.  Depart,  and  let  me  never  see  you 
here  again  !  " 

They  went  away  full  of  rage.  But  behold,  the  Saint  returned,  bring- 
ing a  wallet  of  bread  and  a  bottle  of  wine  which  had  been  given  him, 
and  the  guardian  told  him  how  he  had  sent  away  the  robbers  ;  then 
St.  Francis  reproved  him  severely  for  showing  himself  so  cruel.  .  .  . 
4i  I  command  thee  by  thine  obedience,"  said  he,  "  to  take  at  once  this 
loaf  and  this  wine  and  go  seek  the  robbers  by  hill  and  dell  until  you 
have  found  them,  to  offer  them  this  as  from  me,  and  to  kneel  there  be- 
fore them  and  humbly  ask  their  pardon,  and  pray  them  in  my  name 
no  longer  to  do  wrong  but  to  fear  God  ;  and  if  they  do  it,  I  promise 
to  provide  for  all  their  wants,  to  see  that  they  always  have  enough 
to  eat  and  drink.    After  that  you  may  humbly  return  hither." 

Brother  Angelo  did  all  that  had  been  commanded  him,  while  St. 
Francis  on  his  part  prayed  God  to  convert  the  robbers.  They  returned 
with  the  brother,  and  when  St.  Francis  gave  them  the  assurance  of  the 
pardon  of  God.  they  changed  their  lives  and  entered  the  Order,  in 
which  they  lived  and  died  most  holily.- 

What  has  sometimes  been  said  of  the  voice  of  the  blood 
is  still  more  true  of  the  voice  of  the  soul.  "When  a  man 
truly  wakens  another  to  moral  life,  he  gains  for  him- 
self an  unspeakable  gratitude.    The  word  master  is  often 

1  The  office  of  guardian  (superior  of  a  monastery)  naturally  dates  from 
the  time  when  the  Brothers  stationed  themselves  in  small  groups  in  the 
villages  of  Umbria — that  is  to  say,  most  probably  from  the  year  1211. 
A  few  years  later  the  monasteries  were  united  to  form  a  custodia. 
Finally,  about  1215,  Central  Italy  was  divided  unto  a  certain  number  of 
provinces  with  provincial  ministers  at  their  head.  All  this  was  done 
little  by  little,  for  Francis  never  permitted  himself  to  regulate  what  did 
not  yet  exist. 

-  fflar.,  26  ;  Conform.,  119b,  1.  Cf.  Rule  of  1221,  cap.  vii.  Quicumque 
ad  eos  (fratres)  venerint,  amicus  xel  adcersarhis,  fîir  vel  lairo  bénigne 
recipiatur. 


134 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


profaned,  but  it  can  express  the  noblest  and  purest  of 
earthly  ties. 

Who  are  those  among  us,  who  in  the  hours  of  manly 
innocence  when  they  examine  their  own  consciences, 
do  not  see  rising  up  before  them  from  out  of  the  past 
the  ever  beloved  and  loving  face  of  one  who,  perhaps 
without  knowing  it,  initiated  them  into  spiritual  things  ? 
At  such  a  time  we  would  throw  ourselves  at  the  feet  of 
this  father,  would  tell  him  in  burning  words  of  our  ad- 
miration and  gratitude.  We  cannot  do  it,  for  the  soul 
has  its  own  bashfulness  ;  but  who  knows  that  our  dis- 
quietude and  embarrassment  do  not  betray  us,  and  un- 
veil, better  than  words  could  do,  the  depths  of  our 
heart?  The  air  they  breathed  at  Portiuncula  was  all 
impregnated  with  joy  and  gratitude  like  this. 

To  many  of  the  Brothers,  St.  Francis  was  truly  a 
saviour  ;  he  had  delivered  them  from  chains  heavier  than 
those  of  prisons.  And  therefore  their  greatest  desire 
was  in  their  turn  to  call  others  to  this  same  liberty. 

We  have  already  seen  Brother  Bernardo  on  a  mission 
to  Florence  a  few  months  after  his  entrance  into  the 
Order.  Arrived  at  maturity  when  he  put  on  the  habit, 
he  appears  in  some  degree  the  senior  of  this  apostolic 
college.  He  knew  how  to  obey  St.  Francis  and  remain 
faithful  to  the  very  end  to  the  ideal  of  the  early  days  ; 
but  he  had  no  longer  that  privilege  of  the  young — of 
Brother  Leo,  for  example — of  being  able  to  transform 
himself  almost  entirely  into  the  image  of  him  whom  he 
admired.  His  physiognomy  has  not  that  touch  of  juve- 
nile originality,  of  poetic  fancy,  which  is  so  great  a 
charm  of  the  others. 

Toward  this  epoch  two  Brothers  entered  the  Order, 
men  such  as  the  successors  of  St.  Francis  never  received, 
whose  history  throws  a  bright  light  on  the  simplicity 
of  the  early  days.    It  will  be  remembered  with  what 


PORTIUNC  ULA 


135 


zeal  Francis  had  repaired  several  churches  ;  his  solici- 
tude went  further  ;  he  saw  a  sort  of  profanation  in  the 
negligence  with  which  most  of  them  were  kept  ;  the 
want  of  cleanliness  of  the  sacred  objects,  ill-concealed  by 
tinsel,  gave  him  a  sort  of  pain,  and  it  often  happened 
that  when  he  was  going  to  preach  somewhere  he  secretly 
called  together  the  priests  of  the  locality  and  implored 
them  to  look  after  the  decency  of  the  service.  But  even 
in  these  cases  he  was  not  content  to  preach  only  in 
words  ;  binding  together  some  stalks  of  heather  he  would 
make  them  into  brooms  for  sweeping  out  the  churches. 

One  day  in  the  suburbs  of  Assisi  he  was  performing 
this  task  when  a  peasant  appeared,  who  had  left  his 
oxen  and  cart  out  in  the  fields  while  he  came  to  gaze  at 
him. 

''Brother,"  said  lie  on  entering,  "give  me  the  broom.  I  will  help 
you,  "  and  he  swept  out  the  rest  of  the  church. 

When  he  had  finished,  "  Brother,"  he  said  to  Francis.  (i  for  a  long 
time  I  have  decided  to  serve  God.  especially  when  I  heard  men  speak 
of  you.  But  I  never  knew  how  to  find  you.  Xow  it  has  pleased  God 
that  we  should  meet,  and  henceforth  I  shall  do  whatever  you  may 
please  to  command  me." 

Francis  seeing  his  fervor  felt  a  great  joy  :  it  seemed  to  him  that  with 
his  simplicity  and  honesty  he  would  become  a  good  friar. 

It  appears  indeed  that  he  had  only  too  much  simplic- 
ity, for  after  his  reception  he  felt  himself  bo  and  to  imi- 
tate every  motion  of  the  master,  and  when  the  latter 
coughed,  spat,  or  sighed,  he  did  the  same.  At  last  Fran- 
cis noticed  it  and  gently  reproved  him.  Later  he  be- 
came so  perfect  that  the  other  friars  admired  him  greatly, 
and  after  his  death,  which  took  place  not  long  after,  St. 
Francis  loved  to  relate  his  conversion,  calling  him  not 
Brother  John,  but  Brother  St.  John.1 

Ginepro  is  still  more  celebrated  for  his  holy  follies. 

1  2  Cel.,  3,  120  ;  Spec,  37  ;  Conform..  53a,  1.  See  below,  p.  385,  n.  1. 


136 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


One  clay  lie  went  to  see  a  sick  Brother  and  offered  him 
his  services.  The  patient  confessed  that  he  had  a  great 
longing  to  eat  a  pig's  foot  ;  the  visitor  immediately 
rushed  out,  and  armed  with  a  knife  ran  to  the  neighbor- 
ing forest,  where,  espying  a  troop  of  pigs,  he  cut  off  a 
foot  of  one  of  them,  returning  to  the  monastery  full  of 
pride  over  his  trophy. 

The  owner  of  the  pigs  shortly  followed,  howling  like 
mad,  but  Ginepro  went  straight  to  him  and  pointed  out 
with  so  much  volubility  that  he  had  done  him  a  great 
service,  that  the  man,  after  overwhelming  him  with  re- 
•  proaches,  suddenly  begged  pardon,  killed  the  pig  and  in- 
vited all  the  Brothers  to  feast  upon  it.  Ginepro  was 
probably  less  mad  than  the  story  would  lead  us  to  sup- 
pose ;  Franciscan  humility  never  had  a  more  sincere  dis- 
ciple ;  he  could  not  endure  the  tokens  of  admiration  which 
the  populace  very  early  lavished  on  the  growing  Order, 
and  which  by  their  extravagance  contributed  so  much  to 
its  decadence. 

One  day,  as  he  was  entering  Home,  the  report  of  his 
arrival  spread  abroad,  and  a  great  crowd  came  out  to 
meet  him.  To  escape  was  impossible,  but  he  suddenly 
had  an  inspiration  ;  near  the  gate  of  the  city  some  chil- 
dren were  playing  at  see-saw  ;  to  the  great  amazement 
of  the  Romans  Ginepro  joined  them,  and,  without  heed- 
ing the  salutations  addressed  to  him,  remained  so  ab- 
sorbed in  his  play  that  at  last  his  indignant  admirers 
departed.1 

It  is  clear  that  the  life  at  Portiuncula  must  have  been 
very  different  from  that  of  an  ordinary  convent.  So 
much  youth,2  simplicity,  love,  quickly  drew  the  eyes  of 
men  toward  it.  *  From  all  sides  they  were  turned  to 
those  thatched  huts,  where  dwelt  a  spiritual  family 

1  Fior.,  Vita  di  fra  Ginepro  ;  Spec,  174-182  ;  Conform.  62b. 

2  A.  SS.,  p.  COO. 


PORTItTXCULA  137 

whose  members  loved  one  another  more  than  men  love 
on  earth,  leading  a  life  of  labor,  mirth,  and  devotion. 
The  humble  chapel  seemed  a  new  Zion  destined  to  en- 
lighten the  world,  and  many  in  their  dreams  beheld  blind 
humanity  coming  to  kneel  there  and  recover  sight.1 

Among  the  first  disciples  who  joined  themselves  to  St. 
Francis  we  must  mention  Brother  Silvestro,  the  first 
priest  who  entered  the  Order,  the  very  same  whom  we 
have  already  seen  the  day  that  Bernardo  di  Quintevalle 
distributed  his  goods  among  the  poor.  Since  then  he 
had  not  had  a  moment's  peace,  bitterly  reproaching 
himself  for  his  avarice  ;  night  and  day  he  thought  only 
of  that,  and  in  his  dreams  he  saw  Francis  exorcising  a 
horrid  monster  which  infested  all  the  region.2 

By  his  age  and  the  nature  of  the  memory  he  has  left 
behind  him  Silvestro  resembles  Brother  Bernardo.  He 
was  what  is  usually  understood  by  a  holy  priest,  but 
nothing  denotes  that  he  had  the  truly  Franciscan  love 
of  great  enterprises,  distant  journeys,  perilous  missions. 
TTithdrawn  into  one  of  the  grottos  of  the  Carceri,  ab- 
sorbed in  the  contemplative  life,  he  gave  spiritual  coun- 
sels to  his  brethren  as  occasion  served.3 

The  typical  Franciscan  priest  is  Brother  Leo.  The 
date  of  his  entrance  into  the  Order  is  not  exactly  known, 
but  we  are  probably  not  far  from  the  truth  in  placing  it 
about  1214.  Of  a  charming  simplicity,  tender,  affec- 
tionate, refined,  he  is,  with  Brother  Elias,  the  one  who 
plays  the  noblest  part  during  the  obscure  years  in  which 
the  new  reform  was  being  elaborated.  Becoming  Fran- 
cis's confessor  and  secretary,  treated  by  him  as  his 

1  3  Soc.  56  ;  2  Cel.,  1,  13;  Bon.,  24. 

2  Bon.,  30  ;  3  Soc.  30,  31  ;  2  Cel.,  3,  52,  Cf.  Fior.,  2.  The  dragon 
of  this  dream  perhaps  symbolizes  heresy. 

3  Bon.,  83  ;  172  ;  Fior. ,  1,  16  ;  Conform.,  49a,  1,  and  110b,  1  ;  2  Cel., 
3,  51. 


188 


LI  F  F]  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


favorite  sou,  lie  excited  much  opposition,  and  was  to  the 
end  of  his  long  life  the  head  of  the  strict  observance.1 

One  winter's  day,  St.  Francis  was  going  with  Brother  Leo  from  Pe- 
rugia to  Santa  Maria  degli  Angeli,  and  the  cold,  being  intense,  made 
them  shiver  ;  he  called  Brother  Leo,  who  was  walking  a  little  in  advance, 
and  said  :  "  O  Brother  Leo,  may  it  please  God  that  the  Brothers  Minor 
all  over  the  world  may  give  a  great  example  of  holiness  and  edification  ; 
write,  however,  and  note  with  care,  that  not  in  this  is  the  perfect  joy." 

St.  Francis,  going  on  a  little  farther,  called  him  a  second  time  :  "  O 
Brother  Leo,  if  the  Brothers  Minor  gave  sight  to  the  blind,  healed  the 
infirm,  cast  ont  demons,  gave  hearing  to  the  deaf,  or  even  what  is 
much  more,  if  they  raised  the  four  days  dead,  write  that  not  in  this  is 
the  perfect  joy." 

Going  on  a  little  farther  he  cried  :  "  O  Brother  Leo,  if  the  Brother 
Minor  knew  all  languages,  all  science,  and  all  scriptures,  if  he  could 
prophesy  and  reveal  not  only  future  things  but  even  the  secrets  of  con- 
sciences and  of  souls,  write  that  not  in  this  consists  the  perfect  joy." 

Going  a  little  farther  St.  Francis  called  to  him  again  :  "  O  Brother 
Leo.  little  sheep  of  God,  if  the  Brother  Minor  could  speak  the  language 
of  angels,  if  he  knew  the  courses  of  the  stars  and  the  virtues  of  plants, 
if  all  the  treasures  of  earth  were  revealed  to  him,  and  lie  knew  the 
qualities  of  birds,  fishes,  and  all  animals,  of  men,  trees,  rocks,  roots, 
and  waters,  write  that  not  in  these  is  the  perfect  joy." 

And  advancing  still  a  little  farther  St.  Francis  called  loudly  to  him  : 
"  O  Brother  Leo,  if  the  Brother  Minor  could  preach  so  well  as  to  con- 
vert all  infidels  to  the  faith  of  Christ,  write  that  not  in  this  is  the  per- 
fect joy." 

While  speaking  thus  they  had  already  gone  more  than  two  miles,  and 
Brother  Leo,  full  of  surprise,  said  to  him  :  "  Father,  I  pray  you  in 
God's  name  tell  me  in  what  consists  the  perfect  joy." 

And  St.  Francis  replied  :  "  When  we  arrive  at  Santa  Maria  degli  An- 
geli, soaked  with  rain,  frozen  with  cold,  covered  with  mud,  dying  of 
hnnger,  and  we  knock  and  the  porter  comes  in  a  rage,  saying.  'Who 
are  you  ?  '  and  we  answer,  '  We  are  two  of  your  brethren,'  and  he  says, 
1  You  lie,  you  are  two  lewd  fellows  who  go  np  and  down  corrupting 
the  world  and  stealing  the  alms  of  the  poor.  Go  away  from  here  !  '  and 
he  does  not  open  to  us,  but  leaves  us  outside  shivering  in  the  snow  and 
rain,  frozen,  starved,  till  night;  then,  if  thus  maltreated  and  turned 
away,  we  patiently  endure  all  without  murmuring  against  him,  if  we 


1  Bernard  de  Besse,  Be  laudibus.  Turin  MS.,  f°.  102b  and  96a.  He 
died  November  15,  1271.    A.  SS.,  Augusti,  t.  ii.,  p.  221. 


PORTIUNCULA 


139 


think  with  humility  and  charity  that  this  porter  really  knows  us  truly 
and  that  God  makes  him  speak  thus  to  us.  then,  O  Brother  Leo,  write 
that  in  this  is  the  perfect  joy.  .  .  .  Above  all  the  graces  and  all 
the  gifts  which  the  Holy  Spirit  gives  to  his  friends  is  the  grace  to 
conquer  oneself,  and  willingly  to  suffer  pain,  outrages,  disgrace,  and 
evil  treatment,  for  the  love  of  Christ  !  "  1 

Although  by  its  slight  and  somewhat  playful  character 
this  story  recalls  the  insipid  statues  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  it  has  justly  become  celebrated,  its  spirit  is 
thoroughly  Franciscan;  that  transcendent  idealism,  which 
sees  in  perfection  and  joy  two  equivalent  terms,  and 
places  perfect  joy  in  the  pure  and  serene  region  of  the 
perfecting  of  oneself  ;  that  sublime  simplicity  which  so 
easily  puts  in  their  true  place  the  miracle- worker  and  the 
scholar,  these  are  perhaps  not  entirely  new  ; 2  but  St. 
Francis  must  have  had  singular  moral  strength  to  impose 
upon  his  contemporaries  ideas  in  such  absolute  contra- 
diction to  their  habits  and  their  hopes  ;  for  the  intellect- 
ual aristocracy  of  the  thirteenth  century  with  one  accord 
found  the  perfect  joy  in  knowledge,  while  the  people 
found  it  in  miracles. 

Doubtless  we  must  not  forget  those  great  mystical  fam- 
ilies, which,  all  through  the  Middle  Ages,  were  the  refuge 
of  the  noblest  souls  ;  but  they  never  had  this  fine  simplic- 
ity. The  School  is  always  more  or  less  the  gateway  to 
mysticism  ;  it  is  possible  only  to  an  elect  of  subtile  minds  ; 
a  pious  peasant  seldom  understands  the  Imitation. 

It  may  be  said  that  all  St.  Francis's  philosophy  is  con- 
tained in  this  chapter  of  the  Fioretti.3  From  it  we  foresee 
what  will  be  his  attitude  toward  learning,  and  are  helped 

1  Fior.,  8  ;  Spec,  89b  ff.;  Conform.,  30b,  2,  and  140a,  2. 

2  I  need  not  here  point  out  the  analogy  in  form  between  this  chapter 
and  St.  Paul's  celebrated  song  of  love,  1  Cor.  xiii. 

3  We  find  the  same  thoughts  in  nearly  the  same  terms  in  cap.  v.  of 
the  Verba  sacrœ  admonitionis. 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


to  understand  how  it  happens  that  this  famous  saint  was 
so  poor  a  miracle-worker. 

Twelve  centuries  before,  Jesus  had  said,  "  Blessed  are 
the  poor  in  spirit.  Blessed  are  they  who  suffer."  The 
words  of  St.  Francis  are  only  a  commentary,  but  this 
commentary  is  worthy  of  the  text. 

It  remains  to  say  a  word  concerning  two  disciples  who 
were  always  closely  united  with  Brother  Leo  in  the  Fran- 
ciscan memorials — Rufino  and  Masseo. 

Born  of  a  noble  family  connected  with  that  of  St. 
Clara,  the  former  was  soon  distinguished  in  the  Order  for 
his  visions  and  ecstasies,  but  his  great  timidity  checked 
him  as  soon  as  he  tried  to  preach  :  for  this  reason  he  is 
always  to  be  found  in  the  most  isolated  hermitages — Car- 
ceri,  Yerna,  Greccio.1 

Masseo,  of  Marignano,  a  small  village  in  the  environs 
of  Assisi,  was  his  very  opposite  ;  handsome,  well  made, 
witty,  he  attracted  attention  by  his  fine  presence  and  his 
great  facility  of  speech  ;  he  occupies  a  special  place  in 
popular  Franciscan  tradition.  He  deserves  it.  St.  Fran- 
cis, to  test  his  humility,  made  him  the  porter  and  cook  of 
the  hermitage,2  but  in  these  functions  Masseo  showed 
himself  to  be  so  perfectly  a  Minor  that  from  that  time 
the  master  particularly  loved  to  have  him  for  companion 
in  his  missionary  journeys. 

One  day  they  were  travelling  together,  when  they  ar- 
rived at  the  intersection  of  the  roads  to  Sienna,  Arezzo, 
and  Florence. 

"  Which  one  shall  we  take  ?  "  asked  Masseo. 

"  Whichever  one  God  wills." 

1  He  is  the  second  of  the  Three  Companions.  3  Soc,  1  ;  cf.  1  Cel. ,  95  ; 
fflor.,  1  ;  29,  30,  31  ;  Eccleston,  12;  Spec,  110a-114b  ;  Conform.,  51b 
ff.  ;  cf.  2  Cel.,  2,  4. 

2  Very  probably  that  of  the  Carceri,  though  the  name  is  not  indicated. 
Vide  3*  Soc,  1  ;  fflor. ,  4  ;  10  ;  11  ;  12  ;  13  ;  16  ;  27  ;  32  ;  Conform. , 
51b,  Iff  ;  Tribul.  Archiv.,  t.  ii.,  p.  263. 


FORTIUNCULA 


141 


"  But  how  shall  we  know  which  one  God  wills  ?  " 

"  You  shall  see.  Go  and  stand  at  the  crossing  of  the 
roads,  turn  round  and  round  as  the  children  do,  and  do 
not  stop  until  I  bid  you." 

Brother  Masseo  began  to  turn  ;  seized  with  a  vertigo,  he 
was  nearly  falling,  but  caught  himself  up  at  once.  Fi- 
nally Francis  called  out,  "  Stop  !  which  way  are  you 
facing  ?  " 

"  Toward  Sienna." 

"  Very  well  ;  God  wills  that  Ave  go  to  Sienna."  1 

Such  a  method  of  making  up  one's  mind  is  doubtless 
not  for  the  daily  needs  of  life,  but  Francis  employed  still 
others,  like  it,  if  not  in  form  at  least  in  fact. 

Up  to  this  time  we  have  seen  the  brethren  living 
together  in  their  hermitages  or  roving  the  highways, 
preaching  repentance.  It  would,  however,  be  a  mistake 
to  think  that  their  whole  lives  were  passed  thus.  To 
understand  the  first  Franciscans  Ave  must  absolutely  for- 
get Avhat  they  may  have  been  since  that  time,  and  what 
monks  are  in  general  ;  if  Portiuncula  was  a  monastery  it 
was  also  a  workshop,  where  each  brother  practised  the 
trade  which  had  been  his  before  entering  the  Order  ;  but 
what  is  stranger  still  to  our  ideas,  the  Brothers  often 
Avent  out  as  servants.2 

Brother  Egidio's  case  was  not  an  exception,  it  Avas  the 
rule.  This  did  not  last  long,  for  very  soon  the  friars  who 
entered  a  house  as  domestics  came  to  be  treated  as  dis- 
tinguished guests  ;  but  in  the  beginning  they  were  liter- 
ally servants,  and  took  upon  themselves  the  most  menial 
labors.    Among  the  Avorks  which  they  might  under- 

1  Fior.,  11  ;  Conform.,  50b,  2;  Spec.,  104a. 

2  Rule  of  1221,  chap.  7.  Oranes  f rat-res,  in  guibuscumgue  loci's  fuerint 
apud  aliguos  ad  serviendum,  tel  ad  laborandum,  non  sint  camerarii,  nec 
cellarii,  nec  prœsint  in  domibus  coram  gidbus  serviunt.  Cf.  1  Cel.,  38 
and  40;    A.  SS..  p.  606. 


142 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


take  Francis  recommended  above  all  the  care  of  lepers. 
We  have  already  seen  the  important  part  which  these  un- 
fortunates played  in  his  conversion  ;  he  always  retained 
for  them  a  peculiar  pity,  which  he  sought  to  make  his  dis- 
ciples share. 

For  several  years  the  Brothers  Minor  may  be  said  to 
have  gone  from  lazaretto  to  lazaretto,  preaching  by  day 
in  the  towns  and  villages,  and  retiring  at  night  to  these 
refuges,  where  they  rendered  to  these  patients  of  God 
the  most  repugnant  services. 

The  Crucigeri,  who  took  charge  of  the  greater  number 
of  leper-houses,  always  welcomed  these  kindly  disposed 
aides,  who,  far  from  asking  any  sort  of  recompense,  were 
willing  to  eat  whatever  the  patients  might  have  left.1  In 
fact,  although  created  solely  for  the  care  of  lepers,  the 
Brothers  of  this  Order  sometimes  lost  patience  when  the 
sufferers  were  too  exacting,  and  instead  of  being  grateful 
had  only  murmurs  or  even  reproaches  for  their  benefac- 
tors. In  these  desperate  cases  the  intervention  of  Fran- 
cis and  his  disciples  was  especially  precious.  It  often 
happened  that  a  Brother  was  put  in  special  charge  of  a 
single  leper,  whose  companion  and  servant  he  continued 
to  be,  sometimes  for  a  long  period.2 

The  following  narrative  shows  Francis's  love  for  these 
unfortunates,  and  his  method  with  them.3 

It  happened  one  time  that  the  Brothers  were  serving  the  lepers  and 
the  sick  in  a  hospital,  near  to  the  place  where  St.  Francis  was.  Among 
them  was  a  leper  who  was  so  impatient,  so  cross-grained,  so  unendur- 
able, that  everyone  believed  him  to  be  possessed  by  the  devil,  and 

1  1  Cel.,  103  ;  09  ;  Spec,  28  ;  Reg.  1221,  ix.;  CHord.,  33  and  39. 

2  Vide  Spec,,  34b.;  Fior.,  4. 

3  All  the  details  of  this  story  lead  me  to  think  that  it  refers  to  Por- 
tiuncnla  and  the  hospital  San  Salvatore  dette  Pareti.  The  story  is  given 
by  the  Conform.,  174b.  2,  as  taken  from  the  Legeada  Antigua.  Cf. 
Spec.,  5Gb  ;  Fior.,  20. 


PORTIUXCULA 


143 


riglitly  enough,  for  lie  heaped  insults  and  blows  upon  those  who  waited 
upon  him,  and  what  was  worse,  he  continually  insulted  and  blas- 
phemed the  blessed  Christ  and  his  most  holy  Mother  the  Virgin  Mary, 
so  that  there  was  no  longer  anyone  who  could  or  would  wait  upon  him. 
The  Brothers  would  willingly  have  endured  the  insults  and  abuse 
which  he  lavished  upon  them,  in  order  to  augment  the  merit  of  their 
patience,  but  their  souls  could  not  consent  to  hear  those  which  he  ut- 
tered against  Christ  and  his  Mother.  They  therefore  resolved  to  aban- 
don this  leper,  but  not  without  having  told  the  whole  story  exactly  to 
St.  Francis,  who  at  that  time  was  dwelling  not  far  away. 

"When  they  told  him.  St.  Francis  betook  himself  to  the  wicked  leper  ; 
"  May  God  give  thee  peace,  my  most  dear  brother,'1  he  said  to  him  as 
he  drew  near. 

'*  And  what  peace,''  asked  the  leper,  "  can  I  receive  from  God,  who 
has  taken  away  my  peace  and  every  good  thing,  and  has  made  my  body 
a  mass  of  stinking  and  corruption  ?" 

St.  Francis  said  to  him:  "  My  brother,  be  patient,  for  God  gives  us 
diseases  in  this  world  for  the  salvation  of  our  souls,  and  when  we  en- 
dure them  patiently  they  are  the  fountain  of  great  merit  to  us." 

"  How  can  I  endure  patiently  continual  pains  which  torture  me  day 
and  night  ?  And  it  is  not  only  my  disease  that  I  suffer  from,  but  the 
friars  that  you  gave  me  to  wait  upon  me  are  unendurable,  and  do  not 
take  care  of  me  as  they  ought." 

Then  St.  Francis  perceived  that  this  leper  was  possessed  by  the  spirit 
of  evil,  and  he  betook  himself  to  his  knees  in  order  to  praj-  for  him. 
Then  returning  he  said  to  him  :  "My  son,  since  you  are  not  satisfied 
with  the  others,  I  will  wait  upon  you." 

"That  is  all  very  well,  but  what  can  you  do  for  me  more  than 
they  ?  " 

"  I  will  do  whatever  you  wish." 

"Very  well  :  I  wish  you  to  wash  me  from  head  to  foot,  for  I  smell  so 
badly  that  I  disgust  myself." 

Then  St.  Francis  made  haste  to  heat  some  water  with  many  sweet- 
smelling  herbs  ;  next  he  took  off  the  leper's  clothes  and  began  to  bathe 
him,  while  a  Brother  poured  out  the  water.  And  behold,  by  a  divine 
miracle,  wherever  St.  Francis  touched  him  with  his  holy  hands  the 
leprosy  disappeared  and  the  flesh  became  perfectly  sound.  And  in 
proportion  as  the  flesh  was  healed  the  soul  of  the  wretched  man  was 
also  healed,  and  he  began  to  feel  a  lively  sorrow  for  his  sins,  and  to 
weep  bitterly.  .  .  .  And  being  completely  healed  both  in  body  and 
soul,  he  cried  with  all  his  might  :  "  Woe  unto  me,  for  I  have  deserved 
hell  for  the  abuses  and  outrages  which  I  have  said  and  done  to  the 
Brothers,  for  my  impatience  and  my  blasphemies." 


144 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


One  day,  Brother  John,  whose  simplicity  we  have 
already  seen,  and  who  had  been  especially  put  in  charge 
of  a  certain  leper,  took  him  for  a  walk  to  Portiimcula,  as 
if  he  had  not  been  the  victim  of  a  contagious  malady. 
Reproaches  were  not  spared  him  ;  the  leper  heard  them 
and  could  not  hide  his  sadness  and  disti  ess  ;  it  seemed 
to  him  like  being  a  second  time  banished  from  the  world. 
Francis  was  quick  to  remark  all  this  and  to  feel  sharp 
remorse  for  it  ;  the  thought  of  having  saddened  one  of 
God's  patient^  was  unendurable  ;  he  not  only  begged  his 
pardon,  but  he  caused  food  to  be  served,  and  sitting  down 
beside  him  he  shared  his  repast,  eating  from  the  same 
porringer.1  AVe  see  with  what  perseverance  he  pursued 
by  every  means  the  realization  of  his  ideal. 

The  details  just  given  show  the  Umbrian  movement, 
as  it  appears  to  me,  to  be  one  of  the  most  humble  and  at 
the  same  time  the  most  sincere  and  practical  attempts  to 
realize  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth.  How  far  removed 
we  are  here  from  the  superstitious  vulgarity  of  the  me- 
chanical devotion,  the  deceitful  miracle-working  of  cer- 
tain Catholics  ;  how  far  also  from  the  commonplace,  com- 
placent, quibbling,  theorizing  Christianity  of  certain 
Protestants  ! 

Francis  is  of  the  race  of  mystics,  for  no  intermediary 
comes  between  God  and  his  soul  ;  but  his  mysticism  is 
that  of  Jesus  leading  his  disciples  to  the  Tabor  of  con- 
templation ;  but  when,  overrlooded  with  jo};,  they  long 
to  build  tabernacles  that  they  may  remain  on  the  heights 
and  satiate  themselves  with  the  raptures  of  ecstasy, 
"Fools,"  he  says  to  them,  "ye  know  not  what  ye  ask," 
and  directing  their  gaze  to  the  crowds  wandering  like 
sheep  having  no  shepherd,  he  leads  them  back  to  the 

1  In  the  Speculum,  f°  41a,  this  story  ends  with  the  phrase  :  Qui  vidit 
7iœc  scripsit  ei 'testimonium  perliibet  de  km.  The  brother  is  here  called 
Fh'ater  Jacobus  simplex.    Cf.  Conform.,  174b. 


PORTIUNCULÀ 


145 


plain,  to  the  midst  of  those  who  moan,  who  suffer,  who 
blaspheme. 

The  higher  the  moral  stature  of  Francis  the  more 
he  was  exposed  to  the  danger  of  being  understood  only 
by  the  very  few,  and  disappointed  by  those  who  were 
nearest  to  him.  Reading  the  Franciscan  authors,  .one 
feels  every  moment  how  the  radiant  beauty  of  the  model 
is  marred  by  the  awkwardness  of  the  disciple.  It  could 
not  have  been  otherwise,  and  this  difference  between  the 
master  and  the  companions  is  evident  from  the  very 
beginnings  of  the  Order.  The  greater  number  of  the 
biographers  have  drawn  the  veil  of  oblivion  over  the 
difficulties  created  by  certain  Brothers  as  well  as  those 
which  came  from  the  ecclesiastical  hierarchy,  but  we 
must  not  allow  ourselves  to  be  deceived  by  this  almost 
universal  silence. 

Here  and  there  we  find  indications  all  the  more  pre- 
cious for  being,  so  to  say,  involuntary.  Brother  Eufino, 
for  example,  the  same  who  was  destined  to  become  one 
of  the  intimates  of  Francis's  later  days,  assumed  an  atti- 
tude of  revolt  shortly  after  his  entrance  into  the  Order. 
He  thought  it  foolish  in  Francis  when,  instead  of  leav- 
ing the  friars  to  give  themselves  unceasingly  to  prayer, 
he  sent  them  out  in  all  directions  to  wait  upon  lepers.1 
His  own  ideal  was  the  life  of  the  hermits  of  the  The- 
baïde,  as  it  is  related  in  the  then  popular  legends  of  St. 
Anthony,  St.  Paul,  St.  Paconius,  and  twenty  others.  He 
once  passed  Lent  in  one  of  the  grottos  of  the  Carceri. 
Holy  Thursday  having  arrived,  Francis,  who  was  also 
there,  summoned  all  the  brethren  who  were  dispersed 
about  the  neighborhood,  whether  in  grottos  or  huts,  to 
observe  with  him  the  memories  to  which  this  day  was 
consecrated.  Ptufino  refused  to  come  ;  "  For  that  mat- 
ter," he  added,  "  I  have  decided  to  follow  him  no  longer  ; 

]  Conform.,  51b,  1.    Cf.  2  Cel.,  2,  4  ;  Spec,  110b  ;  Fior.,  29. 

V'  -  :    .  10 


148 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


I  mean  to  remain  here  and  live  solitary,  for  in  tins  way  I 
shall  be  more  surely  saved  than  by  submitting  myself  to 
this  man  and  his  nonsense." 

Young  and  enthusiastic  for  the  most  part,  it  was  not 
always  without  difficulty  that  the  Brothers  formed  the 
habit  of  keeping  their  work  in  the  background.  Agree- 
ing with  their  master  as  to  fundamentals,  they  would 
have  liked  to  make  more  of  a  stir,  attract  public  atten- 
tion by  more  obvious  devotion  ;  there  were  some  among 
them  whom  it  did  not  satisfy  to  be  saints,  but  who  also 
wished  to  appear  such. 


CHAPTER  IX 


SANTA  CL  ABA  '  § 
I 

Popular  piety  in  Umbria  never  separates  the  memory 
of  St.  Francis  from  that  of  Santa  Clara.    It  is  right. 

Clara 1  was  bom  at  Assisi  in  1194,  and  vas  conse- 
quently about  twelve  years  younger  than  Francis.  She 
belonged  to  the  noble  family  of  the  Sciffi.  At  the  age 
when  a  little  girl's  imagination  awakes  and  stirs,  she 
heard  the  follies  of  the  son  of  Bernardone  recounted  at 
length.  She  was  sixteen  when  the  Saint  preached  for 
the  first  time  in  the  cathedral,  suddenly  appearing  like 
an  angel  of  peace  in  a  city  torn  by  intestine  dissensions. 

1  Easy  as  it  is  to  seize  the  large  outlines  of  lier  life,  it  is  with  diffi- 
culty that  one  makes  a  detailed  and  documentary  study  of  it.  There  is 
nothing  surprising  in  this,  for  the  Clarisses  felt  the  rebound  of  the 
struggles  which  divided  and  rapidly  transformed  the  Order  of  the 
Brothers  Minor.  The  greater  number  of  the  documents  haye  disap- 
peared ;  we  giye  summary  indication  of  those  which  will  most  often  be 
cited  :  1.  Life  of  St.  Clara  by  an  anonymous  author.  A.  SS.,  Aug.,  t. 
ii.,  pp.  739-768.  2.  Her  Will,  given  by  Wadding  (Annales,  1253,  No. 
5),  but  which  does  not  appear  to  be  free  from  alteration.  (Compare,  for 
example,  the  opening  of  this  will  with  Chapter  YI.  of  the  Rule  of  the 
Damianites  approved  by  Innocent  TV.,  August  8, 1253.)  3.  The  bull  of 
canonization,  given  September  26,  1255 — that  is  to  say,  two  years  after 
Clara's  death:  it  is  much  longer  than  these  documents  ordinarily  are. 
and  relates  the  principal  incidents  of  her  life.  A.  SS.,  loc.  cit.,  p.  749  ; 
Fotthast,  16.025.  4.  Her  correspondence.  Unhappily  we  have  only 
fragments  of  it  :  the  Bollandists,  without  saying  whence  they  drew 
them,  have  inserted  four  of  her  letters  in  the  Acta  of  St.  Agnes  of  Bohe- 
mia, to  whom  they  were  addressed.  (A.  SS.,  Martii,  t.  L,  pp.  506-508.) 


148 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


To  her  his  appeals  were  like  a  revelation.  It  seemed  as 
if  Francis  was  speaking  for  her,  that  he  divined  her  secret 
sorrows,  her  most  personal  anxieties,  and  all  that  was 
ardent  and  enthusiastic  in  the  heart  of  this  young  girl 
rushed  like  a  torrent  that  suddenly  finds  an  outlet  into 
the  channel  indicated  by  him.  For  saints  as  for  heroes 
the  supreme  stimulus  is  woman's  admiration. 

But  here,  more  than  ever,  we  must  put  away  the  vul- 
gar judgment  which  can  understand  no  union  between 
man  and  woman  where  the  sexual  instinct  has  no  part. 
That  which  makes  the  union  of  the  sexes  something  al- 
most divine  is  that  it  is  the  préfiguration,  the  symbol,  of 
the  union  of  souls.  Physical  love  is  an  ephemeral  spark, 
designed  to  kindle  in  human  hearts  the  flame  of  a  more 
lasting  love  ;  it  is  the  outer  court  of  the  temple,  but  not 
the  most  holy  place  ;  its  inestimable  value  is  precisely 
that  it  leaves  us  abruptly  at  the  door  of  the  holiest  of  all 
as  if  to  invite  us  to  step  over  the  threshold. 

The  mysterious  sigh  of  nature  goes  out  for  the  union 
of  souls.  This  is  the  unknown  God  to  whom  debau- 
chees, those  pagans  of  love,  offer  their  sacrifices,  and  this 
sacred  imprint,  even  though  effaced,  though  soiled  by 
all  pollutions,  often  saves  the  man  of  the  world  from 
inspiring  as  much  disgust  as  the  drunkard  and  the 
criminal. 

But  sometimes — more  often  than  we  think — there  are 
souls  so  pure,  so  little  earthly,  that  on  their  first  meet- 
ing they  enter  the  most  holy  place,  and  once  there  the 
thought  of  any  other  union  would  be  not  merely  a 
descent,  but  an  impossibility.  Such  was  the  love  of  St. 
Francis  and  St.  Clara, 

But  these  are  exceptions.  There  is  something  mys- 
terious in  this  supreme  purity  ;  it  is  so  high  that  in 
holding  it  up  to  men  one  risks  speaking  to  them  in  an 
unknown  tongue,  or  even  worse. 


SANTA  CLARA 


149 


The  biographers  of  St.  Francis  have  clearly  felt  the 
danger  of  offering  to  the  multitude  the  sight  of  certain 
beauties  which  are  far  beyond  them,  and  this  is  for  us 
the  great  fault  of  their  works.  They  try  to  give  us  not 
so  much  the  true  portrait  ôï  Francis  as  that  of  the  perfect 
minister- general  of  the  Order  such  as  they  conceive  it, 
such  as  it  must  needs  be  to  serve  as  a  model  for  his 
disciples  ;  thus  they  have  made  this  model  somewhat 
according  to  the  measure  of  those  whom  it  is  to  serve, 
by  omitting  here  and  there  features  which,  stupidly  in- 
terpreted, might  have  furnished  material  for  the  ma- 
levolence of  unscrupulous  adversaries,  or  from  which 
disciples  little  versed  in  spiritual  things  could  not  have 
failed  to  draw  support  for  permitting  themselves  dan- 
gerous intimacies.  Thus  the  relations  of  St.  Francis 
with  women  in  general  and  St.  Clara  in  particular,  have 
been  completely  travestied  by  Thomas  of  Celano.  It 
could  not  have  been  otherwise,  and  we  must  not  bear 
him  a  grudge  for  it.  The  life  of  the  founder  of  an  Order, 
when  written  by  a  monk,  in  the  very  nature  of  things 
becomes  always  a  sort  of  appendix  to  or  illustration  of 
the  Rule.  And  the  Rule,  especially  if  the  Order  has  its 
thousands  of  members,  is  necessarily  made  not  for  the 
elect,  but  for  the  average,  for  the  majority  of  the  flock.1  f 

Hence  this  portrait,  in  which  St.  Francis  is  represented 
as  a  stern  ascetic,  to  whom  woman  appears  to  be  a  sort  of 

1  Reading  the  Chronicle  of  Fra  Salimbeni,  which,  represents  the  aver- 
age Franciscan  character  about  1250,  one  sees  with  what  reason  the 
Rule  had  multiplied  minute  precautions  for  keeping  the  Brothers  from 
all  relations  with  women.  ^L^S  ^ 

The  desire  of  Celano  to  present  the  facts  in  the  life  of  "Trâncis  as  the 
norm  of  the  acts  of  the  friars  appears  still  more  irMhe  chapters  con- 
cerning St.  Clara  than  in  all  the  others.  Vide  2  Cel.,  3,  132  :  Non  ere- 
datis,  charissimi  {dixit  Francisais),  quod eas perfecte  non  dUigam.  .  .  . 
Bed  exenrplum-  do  vobis,  ut  quemadmodum  ego  facio,  ita  et  vos  facialis* 
Cf.  ibid.,  134. 


150 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


incarnate  devil  !  The  biographers  even  go  so  far  as  to 
assure  us  that  he  knew  only  two  women  by  sight.  These 
are  manifest  exaggerations,  or  rather  the  opposite  of  the 
truth.1 

We  are  not  reduced  to  conjecture  to  discover  the  true 
attitude  of  the  Umbrian  prophet  in  this  matter.  With- 
out suspecting  it,  Celano  himself  gives  details  enough 
for  the  correction  of  his  own  errors,  and  there  are  be- 
sides a  number  of  other  documents  whose  scattered 
hints  correspond  and  agree  with  one  another  in  a  manner 
all  the  more  marvellous  that  it  is  entirely  unintentional, 
giving,  when  they  are  brought  together,  almost  all  one 
could  desire  to  know  of  the  intercourse  of  these  two 
beautiful  souls. 

After  the  sermons  of  Francis  at  St.  Eufino,  Clara's 
decision  was  speedily  taken  ;  she  would  break  away  from 
the  trivialities  of  an  idle  and  luxurious  life  and  make 
herself  the  servant  of  the  poor  ;  all  her  efforts  should  be 
bent  to  make  each  day  a  new  advance  in  the  royal  Avay 
of  love  and  poverty  ;  and  for  this  she  would  have  only 
to  obey  him  who  had  suddenly  revealed  it  to  her. 

She  sought  him  out  and  opened  to  him  her  heart. 
With  that  exaltation,  a  union  of  candor  and  delicacy, 
which  is  woman's  fine  endowment,  and  to  which  she 
would  more  readily  give  free  course  if  she  did  not  too 

1  2  Cel.,  3,  55.  Fateor  veritatem  .  .  .  nuUam  me  si  asjncerem  re- 
cogniturum  in  facie  nisi  duas.  This  chapter  and  the  two  following  give 
us  a  sort  of  caricature,  in  which  Francis  is  represented  as  so  little  sure 
of  himself  that  he  casts  down  his  eyes  for  fear  of  yielding  to  desire. 
The  stories  of  Francis  and  Jacqueline  of  SettesoH  give  a  very  different 
picture  of  the  relations  between  the  Brothers  and  the  women  ir  the 
origin  of  the  Order  from  that  which  was  given  later.  Bernard  de 
Besse  (Turin  MS..  f°.  113)  re'ates  at  length  the  coming  of  Jacqueline 
to  Portiuncula  to  be  present  at  St.  Francis's  death.  Cf.  Spec,  107  ;  133  ; 
Bon.,  112.  A^o  Clara's  repast  at  Portiuncula.  Fior.,  15  ;  Spec,  139 
b.;  A,  SS.  Aug.  Vita  Clar.,  No.  39  ff. 


SANTA  CLARA 


151 


often  divine  the  pitfalls  of  base  passion  and  incredulity, 
Clara  offered  herself  to  Francis. 

It  is  one  of  the  privileges  of  saints  to  suffer  more  than 
other  men,  for  they  feel  in  their  more  loving  hearts  the 
echo  of  all  the  sorrows  of  the  world  ;  but  they  also  know 
joys  and  delights  of  which  common  men  never  taste. 
What  an  inexpressible  song  of  joy  must  have  burst  forth 
in  Francis's  heart  when  he  saw  Clara  on  her  knees  be- 
fore him,  awaiting,  with  his  blessing,  the  word  which 
would  consecrate  her  life  to  the  gospel  ideal. 

Who  knows  if  this  interview  did  not  inspire  another 
saint,  Fra  Angelico,  to  introduce  into  his  masterpiece 
those  two  elect  souls  who,  already  radiant  with  the  light 
of  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  stop  to  exchange  a  kiss  be- 
fore crossing  its  threshold  ? 

Souls,  like  flowers,  have  a  perfume  of  their  own  which 
never  deceives.  One  look  had  sufficed  for  Francis  to 
go  down  into  the  depths  of  this  heart  ;  he  was  too  kind 
to  submit  Clara  to  useless  tests,  too  much  an  idealist  to 
prudently  confine  himself  to  custom  or  arbitrary  deco- 
rum ;  as  when  he  founded  the  Order  of  Friars,  he  took 
counsel  only  of  himself  and  God.  In  this  was  his 
strength  ;  if  he  had  hesitated,  or  even  if  he  had  simply 
submitted  himself  to  ecclesiastical  rides,  he  would  have 
been  stopped  twenty  times  before  he  had  done  anything. 
Success  is  so  powerful  an  argument  that  the  biographers 
appear  not  to  have  perceived  how  determined  Francis 
was  to  ignore  the  canonical  laws.  He,  a  simple  deacon, 
arrogated  to  himself  the  right  to  receive  Clara's  vows 
and  admit  her  to  the  Order  without  the  briefest  no- 
vitiate. Such  an  act  ought  to  have  drawn  down  upon 
its  author  all  the  censures  of  the  Church,  but  Francis 
was  already  one  of  those  powers  to  whom  much  is  for- 
given, even  by  those  who  speak  in  the  name  of  the  holy 
Ft oman  Church. 


152 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Francis  had  decided  that  on  the  night  between  Palm 
Sunday  and  Holy  Monday  (March  18-19,  1212)  Clara 
should  secretly  quit  the  paternal  castle  and  come  with 
two  companions  to  Portiuncula,  where  he  would  await 
her,  and  would  give  her  the  veil.  She  arrived  just  as 
the  friars  were  singing  matins.  They  went  out,  the 
story  goes,  carrying  candles  in  their  hands,  to  meet  the 
bride,  while  from  the  woods  around  Portiuncula  re- 
sounded songs  of  joy  over  this  new  bridal.  Then  Mass 
was  begun  at  that  same  altar  where,  three  years  before, 
Francis  had  heard  the  decisive  call  of  Jesus  ;  he  was 
kneeling  in  the  same  place,  but  surrounded  now  with  a 
whole  spiritual  family. 

It  is  easy  to  imagine  Clara's  emotion.  The  step  which 
she  had  just  taken  was  simply  heroic,  for  she  knew  to 
what  persecutions  from  her  family  she  was  exposing 
herself,  and  what  she  had  seen  of  the- life  of  the  Brothers 
Minor  was  a  sufficient  warning  of  the  distresses  to  which 
she  was  exposing  herself  in  espousing  poverty.  No 
doubt  she  interpreted  the  words  of  the  service  in  har- 
mony with  her  own  thoughts  : 

"  Surely  they  are  my  people,"  said  Jehovah. 
"  Children  who  will  not  be  faithless  !  " 
And  he  was  for  them  a  saviour. 

In  none  of  their  afflictions  were  they  without  succor. 
And  the  angel  that  is  before  his  face  saved  them.  1 

Then  Francis  read  again  the  words  of  Jesus  to  his  dis- 
ciples ;  she  vowed  to  conform  her  life  to  them  ;  her  hair 
was  cut  off;  all  was  finished.  A  few  moments  after, 
Francis  conducted  her  to  a  house  of  Benedictine  nuns2 

1  Isaiah,  lxiii..  8  and  9  (S§gond's  [French]  translation).  At  the  Mass  on 
Holy  Monday  Isaiah  lxiii.  is  read  for  the  Epistle  and  Mark  xiv.  for 
the  Gospel. 

2  San  Paolo  on  the  Chiasco,  near  Bastia. 


SANTA  CLARA 


at  an  hour's  distance,  where  she  was  to  remain  provi- 
sionally and  await  the  progress  of  events. 

The  very  next  morning  Favorino,  her  father,  arrived 
with  a  few  friends,  inveighing,  supplicating,  abusing 
everybody.  She  was  immovable,  showing  so  much 
courage  that  at  last  they  gave  up  the  thought  of  carrying 
her  off  by  main  force. 

She  was  not,  however,  at  the  end  of  her  tribulations. 
Had  this  scene  frightened  the  Benedictines  ?  We  can- 
not tell,  but  less  than  a  fortnight  after  we  find  her  in 
another  convent,  that  of  Sant-Angelo  in  Panso,  at  Assisi.1 
A  week  after  Easter,  Agnes,  her  younger  sister,  joined 
her  there,  decided  in  her  turn  to  serve  poverty.  Franc- is 
received  her  into  the  Order.  This  time  the  father's  fury 
was  horrible.  With  a  band  of  relatives  he  invaded  the 
convent,  but  neither  abuse  nor  blows  could  subdue  this 
child  of  fourteen.  In  spite  of  her  cries  they  dragged  her 
away.  She  fainted,  and  the  little  inanimate  body  sud- 
denly seemed  to  them  so  heavy  that  they  abandoned  it 
in  the  midst  of  the  fields,  some  laborers  looking  with 
pity  on  the  painful  scene,  until  Clara,  whose  cry  God 
had  heard,  hastened  to  succor  her  sister. 

Their  sojourn  in  this  convent  was  of  very  short  dura- 
tion. It  appears  that  they  did  not  carry  away  a  very 
pleasant  impression  of  it.'2  Francis  knew  that  several 
others  were  burning  to  join  his  two  women  friends  ;  he 
therefore  set  himself  to  seek  out  a  retreat  where  they 

1  At  the  present  day  diocesan  seminary  of  Assisi,  "  Seminar ium 
seraphicum."  In  the  thirteenth  century  the  north  gate  of  the  city 
was  there.  The  houses  which  lie  between  there  and  the  Basilica  form 
the  new  town,  which  is  rapidly  growing  and  will  unite  the  city  with 
Sacro  Convento. 

2  Nam  steteramus  in  alio  loco,  licet  parum.  Test.  Clar.  It  is  truly 
strange  that  there  is  not  a  word  here  for  the  house  where  the  first  days 
of  her  religious  life  were  passed.  Cf.  VU.,  no.  10  :  B.  Angélus  de  Panso 
.    .    .    ubi  cum  non  plene  mem  ejus  quiesceret. 


154 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


could  live  under  his  direction  and  in  all  liberty  practise 
the  gospel  rule. 

He  had  not  long  to  seek  ;  the  Benedictine  monks  of 
Mount  Subasio  always  seized  every  possible  opportunity 
to  make  themselves  popular.  They  belonged  to  that 
congregation  of  Camaldoli,  whom  the  common  people 
appear  to  have  particularly  detested,  and  several  of  whose 
convents  had  lately  been  pillaged.1  The  abbey  no  longer 
counted  more  than  eight  monks,  who  were  trying  to  save 
the  wreck  of  their  riches  and  privileges  by  partial  sacri- 
fices ;  on  the  22d  of  April,  1212,  they  had  given  to  the 
commune  of  Assisi  for  a  communal  house  a  monument 
which  is  standing  this  day,  the  temple  of  Minerva.2 

Francis,  who  already  was  their  debtor  for  Portiuncula, 
once  more  addressed  himself  to  them.  Happy  in  this 
new  opportunity  to  render  service  to  one  who  was  the 
incarnation  of  popular  claims,  they  gave  him  the  chapel 
of  St.  Damian  ;  perhaps  they  were  well  pleased,  by  fa- 
voring the  new  Order,  to  annoy  Bishop  Guido,  of  whom 
they  had  reason  to  complain.3  However  this  may  be,  in 
this  hermitage,  so  well  adapted  for  prayer  and  medita- 
tion, Francis  installed  his  spiritual  daughters.4  Id  this 
sanctuary,  repaired  by  his  own  hands,  at  the  feet  of  this 
crucifix  which  had  spoken  to  him,  Clara  was  hencefor- 
ward to  pray.  It  was  the  house  of  God  ;  it  was  also  in 
good  measure  that  of  Francis.    Crossing  its  threshold, 

1  Mittarelli,  Annales  Camaldnlenses  (Venice,  1755-1773,9  vols.,  f°.),  t. 
iv.,  app.  431  and  435.    Cf.  15G. 

2  The  act  of  donation  is  still  in  the  archives  of  Assisi.  An  analysis  of 
it  will  be  found  in  Cristofani.  t  i.,  p.  133.  Their  munificence  remained 
without  result  ;  the  ball  Ab  Ecclesia  of  July  27,  1232,  shows  that  they 
were  suppressed  less  than  twenty  years  after.  Sbaralea,  t.  1,  p.  81. 
Potthast,  8984.  Cf.,  ib. ,  p.  195,  note  c,  and  340,  note  a,  and  the  bulls 
which  are  there  indicated. 

3  See  p.  81,  note  ii. 

41  Cel.,  18;  21;  3  Soc,  24;  2  Cel.,  1,  8. 


SANTA  CLARA 


155 


Clara  doubtless  experienced  that  feeling,  at  once  so  sweet 
and  so  poignant,  of  the  wife  who  for  the  first  time  enters 
her  husband's  house,  trembling  with  emotion  at  the  ra- 
diant and  confused  vision  of  the  future. 

If  we  are  not  entirely  to  misapprehend  these  begin- 
nings, we  must  remember  with  what  rapidity  external 
influences  transformed  the  first  conception  of  St.  Francis. 
At  this  moment  he  no  more  expected  to  found  a  second 
order  than  he  had  desired  to  found  the  first  one.  In 
snatching  Clara  from  her  family  he  had  simply  acted  like 
a  true  knight  who  rescues  an  oppressed  woman,  and 
takes  her  under  his  protection.  In  installing  her  at  St. 
Damian  he  was  preparing  a  refuge  for  those  who  desired 
to  imitate  her  and  apart  from  the  world  practise  the 
gospel  Rule.  But  he  never  thought  that  the  perfection 
of  which  he  and  his  disciples  were  the  apostles  and  mis- 
sionaries, and  which  Clara  and  her  companions  were  to 
realize  in  celibacy,  was  not  practicable  in  social  positions 
also  ;  thence  comes  what  is  wrongly  called  the  Tertiari, 
or  Third  Order,  and  which  in  its  primitive  thought  was 
not  separated  from  the  first.  This  Third  Order  had  no 
need  to  be  instituted  in  1221,  for  it  existed  from  the 
moment  when  a  single  conscience  resolved  to  practise 
his  teachings,  without  being  able  to  follow  him.  to  Por- 
tiuncula.1  The  enemy  of  the  soul  for  him  as  for  Jesus 
was  avarice,  understood  in  its  largest  sense — that  is  to  say, 
that  blindness  which  constrains  men  to  consecrate  their 
hearts  to  material  preoccupations,  makes  them  the  slave 
of  a  few  pieces  of  gold  or  a  few  acres  of  land,  renders 

1  An.  Penis.,  A.  SS.,  p.  600.  Cf.  3  Soc,  60.  The  three  Orders  are 
contemporary,  one  might  even  say,  the  four,  including  among  them  the 
one  that  miscarried  among  the  secular  priests  (see  below). 

In  a  letter  St.  Clara  speaks  of  her  Order  as  making  only  a  part  with 
that  of  the  Brothers  :  Sequaris  comitia  Reverenni  Patris  nostri  fratris 
Eke  MinihtH  generalis  tolius  or  Mais.    A.  SS.,  Martii,  t.  i.,  p.  GOT. 


150 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


them  insensible  to  the  beauties  of  nature,  and  deprives 
them  of  infinite  joys  which  they  alone  can  know  who  are 
the  disciples  of  poverty  and  love. 

Whoever  was  free  at  heart  from  all  material  servitude, 
whoever  was  decided  to  live  without  hoarding,  every  rich 
man  who  was  willing  to  labor  with  his  hands  and  loyally 
distribute  all  that  he  did  not  consume  in  order  to  con- 
stitute the  common  fund  which  St.  Francis  called  the 
Lord's  table,  every  poor  man  who  was  willing  to  work, 
free  to  resort,  in  the  strict  measure  of  his  wants,  to  this 
table  of  the  Lord,  these  were  at  that  time  true  Francis- 
cans. 

It  was  a  social  revolution. 

There  was  then  at  that  time  neither  one  Order  nor  sev- 
eral.1 The  gospel  of  the  Beatitudes  had  been  found 
again,  and,  as  twelve  centuries  before,  it  could  accommo- 
date itself  to  all  situations. 

Alas  !  the  Church,  personified  by  Cardinal  Ugolini,  was 
about,  if  not  to  cause  the  Franciscan  movement  to  mis- 
carry, at  least  so  well  to  hedge  about  it  that  a  few  }  ears 
later  it  would  have  lost  nearly  its  whole  original  char- 
acter. 

As  has  been  seen,  the  word  poverty  expresses  only 
very  imperfectly  St.  Francis's  point  of  view,  since  it 
contains  an  idea  of  renunciatiou,  of  abstinence,  while  in 
thought  the  vow  of  poverty  is  a  vow  of  liberty.  Property 
is  the  cage  with  gilded  wires,  to  which  the  poor  larks  are 
sometimes  so  thoroughly  accustomed  that  they  no  longer 

1  This  point  of  view  is  brought  into  relief  by  an  anecdote  in  the  Le 
lin  libm  of  Bernard  of  Besse  (Turin  MS.,  113a).  This  is  how  he  ends 
chap.  vii.  on  the  three  Orders:  J\Tec  Santus  Ms  contentus  ordinibus  sata- 
gebut  omnium  generi  salutis  et  penitentiœ  tiara  dare.  Unde  parocldali 
cuidam  sacerdoti  dicenti  sibi  quod  vellet  suus,  retenta  tamen  ecdesia, 
Frater  esse,  dato  rivendi  et  induendi  modo,  dicitur  indixisse  ut  annu- 
atim,  collectis  Ecclesi-œ  fructibus  daret  pro  Deo,  quod  de  prœteritis  super- 
esset. 


SANTA  CLARA 


157 


even  think  of  getting  away  in  order  to  soar  up  into  the 
blue. 1 

From  the  beginning  St.  Damian  was  the  extreme  oppo- 
site to  what  a  convent  of  Clarisses  of  the  strict  observ- 
ance is  now  ;  it  is  still  to-day  very  much  as  Francis  saw 
it.  We  owe  thanks  to  the  Brothers  Minor  for  having  pre- 
served intact  this  venerable  and  charming  hermitage, 
and  not  spoiling  it  with  stupid  embellishments.  This 
little  corner  of  Umbrian  earth  will  be  for  our  descend- 
ants like  Jacob's  well  whereon  Christ  sat  himself  down 
for  an  instant,  one  of  the  favorite  courts  of  the  worship 
in  spirit  and  in  truth. 

In  installing  Clara  there  Francis  put  into  her  hands 
the  Rule  which  he  had  prepared  for  her,2  which  no  doubt, 
resembled  that  of  the  Brothers  save  for  the  precepts  with 
regard  to  the  missionary  life.  He  accompanied  it  with 
the  engagement  3  taken  by  himself  and  his  brothers  to 
supply  by  labor  or  alms  all  the  needs  of  Clara  and  her 
future  companions.  In  return  they  also  Avere  to  work 
and  render  to  the  Brothers  all  the  services  of  which 
they  might  be  capable.  We  have  seen  the  zeal  which 
Francis  had  brought  to  the  task  of  making  the  churches 
worthy  of  the  worship  celebrated  in  them  ;  he  could  not 
endure  that  the  linen  put  to  sacred  uses  should  be  less 
than  clean.    Clara  set  herself  to  spinning  thread  for  the 

1  See  the  lovely  story  in  the  Fîor.,  13.  Cf.  Spec. ,  6oa  ;  Conform., 
168b,  1. 

2  The  text  of  it  was  doubtless  formerly  inserted  in  chapter  vi.  of  the 
Rule  granted  to  the  Clarisses  of  St.  Damian,  August  9.  1253,  by  the  bull 
Solet  annuere.  Potthast,  15.086.  But  this  chapter  has  been  completely 
changed  in  many  editions.  The  text  of  the  Speculum,  Morin,  Rouen 
1509,  should  be  read.  Tract  iii,  226b.  The  critical  study  to  be  made 
upon  this  text  by  comparing  the  indications  given  by  the  bull  Angdis 
guadium  of  May  11,  1238,  Sbaralea.  i.,  p  242,  is  too  long  tojind  a  place 
here. 

3  2  Cel..  3,  132.    Cf.  T<st.  B.  Clar. 


158 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANC  I S 


altar-clofclis  and  corporals  which  the  Brothers  undertook 
to  distribute  among  the  poor  churches  of  the  district.1 
In  addition,  during  the  earlier  years,  she  also  nursed 
the  sick  Avliom  Francis  sent  to  her,  and  St.  Dauiian  was 
for  some  time  a  sort  of  hospital.2 

One  or  two  friars,  who  were  called  Zealots  of  the  Poor 
Ladies,  were  especially  charged  with  the  care  of  the 
Sisters,  making  themselves  huts  beside  the  chapel,  after 
the  model  of  those  of  Portiuncula.  Francis  was  also  near 
at  hand  ;  a  sort  of  terrace  four  paces  long  overlooks  the 
hermitage  ;  Clara  made  there  a  tiny  garden,  and  when, 
at  twilight,  she  went  thither  to  water  her  flowers,  she 
could  see,  hardly  half  a  league  distant,  Portiuncula  stand- 
ing out  against  the  aureola  of  the  western  sky. 

For  several  years  the  relations  between  the  two  houses 
were  continual,  full  of  charm  and  freedom.  The  com- 
panions of  Francis  who  received  Brothers  received  Sisters 
also,  at  times  returning  from  their  preaching  tours  with 
a  neophyte  for  St.  Damian.3 

ilia  gravi  infirmitate  .  .  .  faciebat  se  erigi  .  .  .  et  sedens 
jUabat.  A.  SS. ,  760e.  Sic  vult  eas  [sorores]  operate  manibus  suis.  Ib. 
762a. 

2  Mar.  33. 

3  Rule  of  1221,  chap  xii.  Et  nulla  penitus  mulier  ab  aliquo  frater 
recipiatur  ad  obedientiam,  sed  dato  sibi  consilio  spirituals,  ubi  voluerit 
agat  penitentinm.  Cf.  below,  p.  252,  note  1,  the  remainder  of  this 
chapter  and  the  indication  of  the  sources.  This  proves,  1,  that  the 
friars  had  received  women  into  the  Order  ;  2,  that  at  the  beginning 
they  said  The  Order  in  the  singular,  and  under  this  appellation  included 
Sisters  as  well  as  Brothers.  We  see  how  far  the  situation  was,  even  at 
the  end  of  1221,  from  being  what  it  became  a  few  years  later.  It  is  to 
be  noted  that  in  all  the  reforming  sects  of  the  commencement  of  the 
thirteenth  century  the  two  sexes  were  closely  united.  (Vide  Barehardi 
chronicon,  Pertz.  1,  23,  p.  376.  Cf.  Potthast,  2611,  bull  Cum  otim  of 
Nov.  25,  1205.) 

On  the  7th  of  June,  1201  (bull  Incunnbit  nobis),  Innocent  III.  had  ap- 
proved the  Rule  of  the  Humiliants.  This  was  a  religious  association 
whose  members  continued  to  live  in  their  own  homes,  and  who  offer  sur- 


S  AX  TA  CLARA 


150 


But  such  a  situation  could  not  last  long.  The  intimacy 
of  Francis  and  Clara,  the  familiarity  of  the  earlier  friars 
and  Sisters  would  not  do  as  a  model  for  the  relations  of 
the  two  Orders  when  each  had  some  hundreds  of  mem- 
bers. Francis  himself  very  soon  perceived  this,  though 
not  so  clearly  as  his  sister-friend.  Clara  survived  him 
nearly  twenty-seven  years,  and  thus  had  time  to  see  the 
shipwreck  of  the  Franciscan  ideal  among  the  Brothers, 
as  well  as  in  almost  every  one  of  the  houses  which  had  at 
first  followed  the  Rule  of  St.  Damian.  She  herself  was 
led  by  the  pressure  of  events  to  lay  down  rules  for  her 
own  convent,  but  to  her  very  death-bed  she  contended 
for  the  defence  of  the  true  Franciscan  ideas,  with  a  hero- 
ism, a  boldness,  at  once  intense  and  holy,  by  which  she 
took  a  place  in  the  first  rank  of  witnesses  for  conscience. 

Is  it  not  one  of  the  loveliest  pictures  in  religious  his- 
tory, that  of  this  woman  who  for  more  than  half  a  cen- 
tury sustains  moment  by  moment  a  struggle  with  all  the 
popes  who  succeed  one  another  in  the  pontifical  throne, 
remaining  always  equally  respectful  and  immovable,  not 
consenting  to  die  until  she  has  gained  her  victory  ? 1 

To  relate  her  life  is  to  relate  this  struggle  :  the  greater 
number  of  its  vicissitudes  may  be  found  in  the  docu- 

prisiug  points  of  contact  with  the  Franciscan  Order,  though  they  took 
no  vow  of  poverty.  From  them  issued  a  more  restricted  association 
which  founded  convents  where  they  worked  in  wool  ;  these  convents  re- 
ceived both  men  and  women.  Tide  Jacques  de  Vitry,  Hist.  Occidentalism 
cap  28.  De  religioue  et  régula  HiimiU'itorum  (Douai,  1597,  pp.  334- 
337).  The  time  came  when  from  these  two  Orders  issued  a  third,  com- 
posed solely  of  priests.  These  Humiliati  are  too  little  known,  though 
they 'have  had  a  historian  whose  book  is  one  of  the  noble  works  of  the 
eighteenth  century  :  Tiraboschi,  Vetera  Humiliatorvm  monumerda 
(Milan,  3  vols.,  4to,  176G-1768).  Toward  1200  they  had  monopolized 
Varie  délia  lana  in  all  upper  Italy  as  far  as  to  Florence  ;  it  is  evident, 
therefore,  that  Francis's  father  must  have  had  relations  with  them. 

1  The  bull  approving  the  Rule  of  St.  Damian  is  of  August  9,  1253. 
Clara  died  two  days  later. 


160 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


merits  of  the  Roman  curia.  Francis  had  warded  off 
many  a  danger  from  his  institution,  but  he  had  given 
himself  guardians  who  were  little  disposed  to  yield  any 
of  their  rights  ;  Cardinal  Ugolini  in  particular,  the  fut- 
ure Gregory  IX.,  took  a  part  in  these  matters  which  is 
very  difficult  to  understand.  We  see  him  continually 
lavishing  upon  Francis  and  Clara  expressions  of  affection 
and  admiration  which  appear  to  be  absolutely  sincere  ; 
and  yet  the  Franciscan  ideal — regarded  as  the  life  of 
love  at  which  one  arrives  by  freeing  himself  from  all 
servitude  to  material  things  —  has  hardly  had  a  worse 
adversary  than  he. 

In  the  month  of  May,  12*28,  Gregory  IX.  went  to  As- 
sisi  for  the  preliminaries  of  the  canonization  of  St.  Fran- 
cis. Before  entering  the  city  he  turned  out  of  his  way 
to  visit  St.  Damian  and  to  see  Clara,  whom  he  had  known 
for  a  long  time,  and  to  whom  he  had  addressed  letters 
burning  with  admiration  and  paternal  affection.1 

How  can  we  understand  that  at  this  time,  the  eve 
of  the  canonization  (July  16,  1228),  the  pontiff  could 
have  had  the  idea  of  urging  her  to  be  faithless  to  her 
vows  ? 

He  represented  to  her  that  the  state  of  the  times  made 
life  impossible  to  women  who  possess  nothing,  and 
offered  her  certain  properties.  As  Clara  gazed  at  him  in 
astonishment  at  this  strange  proposition,  he  said,  "If  it 
is  your  vows  which  prevent  you,  we  will  release  you 
from  them." 

•'Holy  Father,"  replied  the  Franciscan  sister,  "ab- 
solve me  from  my  sins,  but  I  have  no  desire  for  a  dis- 
pensation from  following  Christ."  2 

Noble  and  pious  utterance,  artless  cry  of  independence, 
in  which  the  conscience  proudly  proclaims  its  autonomy  ! 

'  1  Cel.,  122.    Cf.  Pottbast,  8194  ff.  ;  cf.  ib..  709. 
:  A.  SS. ,  Vita  CI. .  p.  758.    Cf.  bull  of  canonization. 


SANTA  CLARA  161 

In  these  words  is  mirrored  at  full  length  the  spiritual 
daughter  of  the  Poverello. 

By  one  of  those  intuitions  which  often  come  to  very 
enthusiastic  and  very  pure  women,  she  had  penetrated  to 
the  inmost  depths  of  Francis's  heart,  and  felt  herself  in- 
flamed with  the  same  passion  which  burned  in  him.  She 
remained  faithful  to  him  to  the  end,  but  we  perceive  that 
it  was  not  without  difficulty. 

This  is  not  the  place  in  which  to  ask  whether  Gregory 
IX.  was  right  in  desiring  that  religious  communities 
should  hold  estates  ;  he  had  a  right  to  his  own  views  on 
the  subject  ;  but  there  is  something  shocking,  to  say  no 
more,  in  seeing  him  placing  Francis  among  the  saints  at 
the  very  moment  when  he  was  betraying  his  dearest 
ideals,  and  seeking  to  induce  those  who  had  remained 
faithful  to  betray  them. 

Had  Clara  and  Francis  foreseen  the  difficulties  which 
they  would  meet?  "We  may  suppose  so,  for  already 
under  the  pontificate  of  Innocent  III.  she  had  obtained 
a  grant  of  the  privilege  of  poverty.  The  pope  was  so 
much  surprised  at  such  a  request  that  he  desired  to 
write  with  his  own  hands  the  opening  lines  of  this 
patent,  the  like  of  which  had  never  been  asked  for  at 
the  court  of  Rome.1 

Under  his  successor,  Honorius  III. ,  the  most  important 
personage  of  the  curia  was  this  very  Cardinal  TJgolini. 
Almost  a  septuagenarian  in  1216  he  inspired  awe  at  first 

1  Vit.  S.  Clar.,A.  SS.,  p.  758.  This  petition  was  surely  made  by  the 
medium  of  Francis  ;  and  there  are  several  indications  of  his  presence  in 
Perugia  in  the  latter  part  of  the  life  of  Innocent  III.  In  obitu  suo 
[Alexandra  papas}  omnes  famUiares  sui  deseruerunt  eum  prœter  fratres 
Minores.  Et  similiter  Papain  Gregorium  et  Honorium  et  Innocent ium 
in  cujus  obitu  fuit  prœsentialiter  S.  Franciscus.  Eccl.  xv.  Mon.  Germ, 
hist.  Script.,  t.  28  p.  568.  Sbaralea  puts  forth,  donbts  as  to  the  authen- 
ticity of  this  privilege,  the  text  of  which  he  gives  ;  wrongly,  I  think, 
for  Clara  alludes  to  it  in  her  will,  A.  SS. ,  p.  747. 
11 


1G2 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


sight  by  the  aspect  of  his  person.  He  had  that  singular 
beauty  which  distinguishes  the  old  who  have  escaped  the 
usury  of  life  ;  pious,  enlightened,  energetic,  he  felt  him- 
self made  for  great  undertakings.  There  is  something 
in  him  which  recalls  Cardinal  Lavigerie  and  all  the  prel- 
ates whose  red  robes  cover  a  soldier  or  a  despot  rather 
than  a  priest.1 

The  Franciscan  movement  was  attacked  with  vio- 
lence2 in  various  quarters;  he  undertook  to  defend  it, 
and  a  very  long  time  before  the  charge  of  protector  of 
the  Order  was  officially  confided  to  him,  he  exercised  it 
with  devouring  zeal.3  He  felt  an  unbounded  admiration 
for  Francis  and  Clara,  and  often  manifested  it  in  a  touch- 
ing manner.  If  he  had  been  a  simple  man  he  might 
have  loved  them  and  followed  them.  Perhaps  he  even 
had  thought  of  doing  so.4  Alas  !  he  was  a  prince  of  the 
Church  ;  he  could  not  help  thinking  of  what  he  would  do 
in  case  he  should  be  called  to  guide  the  ship  of  St.  Peter. 

He  acted  accordingly  ;  was  it  calculation  on  his  part  or 
simply  one  of  those  states  of  conscience  in  which  a  man 
absorbed  in  the  end  to  be  attained  hardly  discusses  the 
ways  and  means?  I  do  not  know,  but  we  see  him  imme- 
diately on  the  death  of  Innocent  III.,  under  pretext  of 
protecting  the  Clarisses,  take  their  direction  in  hand,  give 

1  He  was  born  about  1147,  created  cardinal  in  1198.  Vide  Raynald, 
ann.,  1217,  §  88,  the  eulogy  made  upon  liiui  by  Honorius  III.  Forma 
decerns  et  venustus  aspect u  .  .  .  zelatorfidei,  disciplina  virttitis,  .  .  . 
castitatis  amator  et  totius  sanciitatis  exemplar  :  Muratori,  Scriptarcs  rer. 
liai.,  iii.,  1,  575. 

2lCel.,74. 

The  bull  Litterœ  tuœ  of  August  27,  1218.  shows  him  already  favor- 
ing the  Clarisses.  Sbaralea,  i.,  p.  1.  Vide  3  Soc,  61.  Offero  me  ipsum, 
dixit  Hugolinus,  vobis,  auxilium  et  consilium,  atque  protectionem  paratus 
impendere. 

4  In  the  Conformities,  107a,  2,  there  is  a  curious  story  which  shows 
Ugolini  going  to  the  Carceri  to  find  Francis,  and  asking  him  if  he  ought 
to  enter  his  Order.    Cf.  Spec,  217. 


SANTA  CLARA 


163 


them  a  Rule,  and  substitute  his  own  ideas  for  those  of  St. 
Francis.1 

In  the  privilege  which  as  legate  he  gave  in  favor  of 
Monticelli,  July  27,  1219,  neither  Clara  nor  Francis  is 
named,  and  the  Damianites  become  as  a  congregation  of 
Benedictines.2 

We  shall  see  farther  on  the  wrath  of  Francis  against 
Brother  Philip,  a  Zealot  of  the  Poor  Ladies,  who  had  ac- 
cepted this  privilege  in  his  absence.  His  attitude  was  so 
firm  that  other  documents  of  the  same  nature  granted  by 
Ugolini  at  the  same  epoch  were  not  indorsed  by  the 
pope  until  three  years  later. 

The  cardinal's  ardor  to  profit  by  the  enthusiasm  which 
the  Franciscan  ideas  everywhere  excited  was  so  great 
that  we  find,  in  the  register  of  his  legation  of  1221,  a  sort 
of  formula  all  prepared  for  those  who  would  found  con- 
vents like  those  of  the  Sisters  of  St.  Damian  ;  but  even 
there  we  search  in  vain  for  the  name  of  Francis  or  Clara.3 

This  old  man  had,  however,  a  truly  mystical  passion 
for  the  young  abbess  ;  he  wrote  to  her.  lamenting  the  ne- 
cessity of  being  far  from  her,  in  words  which  are  the  lan- 
guage of  love,  respect,  and  admiration.4    There  were  at 

1  He  succeeded  so  well  that  Thomas  of  Celano  himself  seems  to  forget 
that,  at  least  at  St.  Damian,  the  Clarisses  followed  the  Rule  given  hy  St. 
Francis  himself  :  Ipsorum  vita  mirijica  et  institutio  gïoriosa  a  domino 
Papa  Gregorio,  time  Hostiensi  epweopo.  1  Cel.  20.  Cf.  Honorii  Opera 
Horoy,  t.  iii.,  col.  363;  t,  iv.,  col.  218;  Potthast.  6179  and  68T9  ff. 

■  This  privilege  is  inserted  in  the  hull  Sacrosancta  of  December  9, 
1219.    Honorii  opera,  Horov,  t.  iii.,  col.  363  ff. 

3  G.  Levi,  Rêgistri  dei  Cardinally  no.  125.  Vide  below,  p.  400.  Cf. 
Campi,  Hist.  eccl.  di  Piacenza,  ii.,  390. 

4  See,  for  example,  the  letter  given  by  Wadding  :  Annals,  ii.,  p.  16 
(Rome,  1732).  Tarda  me  amaritudo  cordis,  abundantia  lacrymarum  et 
imm  mitas  doloris  invasit,  quod  nisi  ad  pedes  Jesu,  consolation  em  solitm 
pietatis  invenirem,  spiritus  meus  forte  deficeret  etpenitus  anima  liqv.efieret. 
Wadding's  text  should  be  corrected  by  that  of  the  Riccardi  MS.,  279, 
f°  80a  and  b.    Cf.  Mark  of  Lisbon,  t.  L,  p.  185  :  Sbaralea  i  .  p.  37. 


1(34 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


least  two  men  in  Ugolini  :  the  Christian,  who  felt  him- 
self subdued  before  Clara  and  Francis  ;  the  prelate,  that 
is,  a  man  whom  the  glory  of  the  Church  sometimes 
caused  to  forget  the  glory  of  God. 

Francis,  though  almost  always  resisting  him,  appears 
to  have  kept  a  feeling  of  ingenuous  gratitude  toward 
him  to  the  very  end.  Clara,  on  the  contrary,  had  too 
long  a  struggle  to  be  able  to  keep  any  illusions  as  to 
the  attitude  of  her  protector.  After  1230  there  is  no 
trace  of  any  relations  between  them. 

All  the  efforts  of  the  pope  to  mitigate  the  rigor  of 
Clara's  vow  of  poverty  had  remained  vain.  Many  other 
nuns  desired  to  practise  strictly  the  Rule  of  St.  Francis. 
Among  them  was  the  daughter  of  the  King  of  Bohemia, 
Ottokar  I.,  who  was  in  continual  relations  with  Clara. 
But  Gregory  IX.,  to  whom  she  addressed  herself,  was 
inflexible.  While  pouring  eulogies  upon  her  he  en- 
joined upon  her  to  follow  the  Rule  which  he  sent  to  her — 
that  is,  the  one  which  he  had  composed  while  he  was  yet 
cardinal.  The  Rule  of  the  Poverello  was  put  among  the 
Utopias,  not  to  say  heresies.1  He  never,  however,  could 
induce  St.  Clara  to  completely  submit  herself.  One  day, 
indeed,  she  rebelled  against  his  orders,  and  it  was  the 
pope  who  was  obliged  to  yield  :  he  had  desired  to  bring 
about  a  wider  separation  between  the  friars  and  the  Sis- 
ters than  had  formerly  prevailed  ;  for  a  long  time  after 
the  death  of  Francis  a  certain  familiarity  had  continued 
between  St.  Damian  and  Portiuncula  ;  Clara  especially 
loved  these  neighborly  relations,  and  often  begged  one  or 
another  Brother  to  come  and  preach.  The  pope  thought 
ill  of  this,  and  forbade,  under  the  severest  penalty,  that 

1  Bull  Angelis  gaudium  of  May  11, 1238  ;  it  may  be  found  in  Sbaralea, 
i.,  p.  242.  Cf.  Palacky,  Literarisclie  Bdse  nacli  Italien,  Prague,  1838, 
4tq,  no.  147,    Potthast,  10,596  ;  cf.  11,175. 


SANTA  CLAKA 


165 


any  friar  of  Portiimcnla  should  go  to  St.  Dainian  with- 
out express  permission  of  the  Holy  See. 

This  time  Clara  became  indignant.  She  went  to  the 
few  friars  attached  to  her  monastery,  and  thanking  them 
for  their  services,  "Go,"  she  said;  "since  they  deprive 
us  of  those  who  dispense  to  us  spiritual  bread,  we  will 
not  have  those  who  procure  for  us  our  material  bread." 
He  who  wrote  that  "  the  necks  of  kings  and  princes  are 
bowed  at  the  feet  of  the  •priests  "  was  obliged  to  bow  before 
this  woman  and  raise  his  prohibition.1 

St.  Damian  had  too  often  echoed  with  St.  Francis's 
hymns  of  love  and  liberty  to  forget  him  so  soon  and  be- 
come an  ordinary  convent.  Clara  remained  surrounded 
with  the  master's  early  companions  ;  Egidio,  Leo,  An- 
gelo,  Ginepro  never  ceased  to  be  assiduous  visitors. 
These  true  lovers  of  poverty  felt  themselves  at  home 
there,  and  took  liberties  which  would  elsewhere  have 
given  surprise.  One  day  an  English  friar,  a  celebrated 
theologian,  came  according  to  the  minister's  orders  to 
preach  at  St.  Damian.  Suddenly  Egidio,  though  a 
simple  layman,  interrupted  him  :  "  Stop,  brother,  let  me 
speak,"  he  said  to  him.  And  the  master  in  theology, 
bowing  his  head,  covered  himself  with  his  cowl  as  a  sign 
of  obedience,  and  sat  down  to  listen  to  Egidio. 

Clara  felt  a  great  joy  in  this  ;  it  seemed  to  her  that 
she  was  once  again  living  in  St.  Francis's  days.2  The 
little  coterie  was  kept,  up  until  her  death  ;  she  expired 
in  the  arms  of  Brothers  Leo,  Angelo,  and  Ginepro.  In 
her  last  sufferings  and  her  dying  visions  she  had  the 
supreme  happiness  of  being  surrounded  by  those  who 
had  devoted  their  lives  to  the  same  ideal  as  she.3 

In  her  will  her  life  shows  itself  that  which  we  have 

1  A.  SS.,  Tit  Clar.,  p.  762.    Cf.  Conform.,  84b,  2. 

2  A.  SS.,  Aprilis,  t.  iii.,  p.  239a  ;  Conform.,  54a,  1  ;  177a,  2. 
s  A.  SS.,  Vit.  Clar.,  p.  764d. 


166 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


seen  it — a  daily  struggle  for  the  defence  of  the  Francis- 
can idea.  We  see  how  courageous  and  brave  was  this 
woman  who  has  always  been  represented  as  frail,  emaci- 
ated, blanched  like  a  flower  of  the  cloister.1 

She  defended  Francis  not  only  against  others,  but  also 
against  himself.  In  those  hours  of  dark  discouragement 
which  so  often  and  so  profoundly  disturb  the  noblest 
souls  and  sterilize  the  grandest  efforts,  she  was  beside 
him  to  show  him  his  way.  When  he  doubted  his  mis- 
sion and  thought  of  fleeing  to  the  heights  of  repose  and 
solitary  prayer,  it  was  she  who  showed  him  the  ripening 
harvest  with  no  reapers  to  gather  it  in,  men  going  astray 
with  no  shepherd  to  lead  them,  and  drew  him  once  again 
into  the  train  of  the  Galilean,  into  the  number  of  those 
who  give  their  lives  a  ransom  for  many.2 

Yet  this  love  with  which  at  St.  Damian  Francis  felt 
himself  surrounded  frightened  him  at  times.  He  feared 
that  his  death,  making  too  great  a  void,  would  imperil 
the  institution  itself,  and  he  took  pains  to  remind  the 
sisters  that  he  would  not  be  always  with  them.  One  day 
when  he  was  to  preach  to  them,  instead  of  entering  the 
pulpit  he  caused  some  ashes  to  be  brought,  and  after 
having  spread  them  around  him  and  scattered  some  on 
his  head,  he  intoned  the  Miserere,  thus  reminding  them 
that  he  was  but  dust  and  would  soon  return  to  dust." 

But  in  general  it  is  at  St.  Damian  that  St.  Francis  is 

1  The  bull  of  canonization  says  nothing  of  the  Saracens  whom  she  put 
to  flight.  Her  life  in  the  A.  SS.  relates  the  fact,  but  shows  her  simply 
in  prayer  before  the  Holy  Sacrament.  Cf.  Conform.,  84b,  1.  Mark  of 
Lisbon,  t.  i.,  part  2,  pp.  179-181.  None  of  these  accounts  represents 
Clara  as  going  to  meet  them  with  a  monstrance. 

;  Bon.,  173  ;  F  lor.  16  ;  Spec,  62b;  Conform..  84b,  2  ;  110b  1  ;  49a,  1. 
With  these  should  be  compared  Spec,  220b  :  F  rater  Leo  narrant  quod 
Sanctus  Francisons  surgens orare  (sic)  renit  adfratres  suos  dicens  :  "lté 
ad  sœculum  et  dimittatis  habitum.  liccntio  vos." 

3  2  Cel.,  3,  134. 


SANTA  CLARA 


167 


the  most  himself  ;  it  is  under  the  shade  of  its  olive-trees, 
with  Clara  caring  for  him,  that  he  composes  his  finest 
•work,  that  which  Ernest  Renan  called  the  most  perfect 
utterance  of  modern  religions  sentiment,  the  "  Canticle  of 
the  Sun.:' 


CHAPTEE  X 


FIRST  ATTEMPTS  TO  REACH  THE  INFIDELS 
Autumn,  1212— Summer,  1215 

The  early  Brothers  Minor  had  too  much  need  of  the 
encouragement  and  example  of  Francis  not  to  have  very 
early  agreed  with  him  upon  certain  fixed  periods  when 
they  would  be  sure  to  find  him  at  Portiuncula.  Still  it 
appears  probable  that  these  meetings  did  not  become 
true  Chapters-General  until  toward  1216.  There  were  at 
first  t  wo  a  year,  one  at  Whitsunday,  the  other  at  Michael- 
mas (September  29th).  Those  of  Whitsunday  were  the 
most  important  ;  all  the  Brothers  came  together  to  gain 
new  strength  in  the  society  of  Francis,  to  draw  generous 
ardor  and  grand  hopes  from  him  with  his  counsels  and 
directions. 

The  members  of  the  young  association  had  everything 
in  common,  their  joys  as  well  as  their  sorrows  ;  their  un- 
certainties as  well  as  the  results  of  their  experiences.  At 
these  meetings  they  were  particularly  occupied  with  the 
Rule,  the  changes  that  needed  to  be  made  in  it,  and 
above  all,  how  they  might  better  and  better  observe  it  ; 1 
then,  in  perfect  harmony,  they  settled  the  allotment  of 
the  friars  to  the  various  provinces. 

One  of  Francis's  most  frequent  counsels  bore  upon  the 
respect  due  to  the  clergy;  he  begged  his  disciples  to 

1  3  Soc,  57  :  cf.  An.  Perus.,  A.  SS.,  p.  599. 


FIRST  ATTEMPTS  TO  REACH  THE  INFIDELS  169 

show  a  very  particular  deference  to  the  priests,  and  never 
to  meet  them  without  kissing  their  hands.  He  saw  only 
too  well  that  the  Brothers,  having  renounced  everything, 
were  in  danger  of  being  unjust  or  severe  toward  the  rich 
and  powerful  of  the  earth  ;  he,  therefore,  sought  to  arm 
them  against  this  tendency,  often  concluding  his  counsels 
with  these  noble  words  :  "  There  are  men  who  to-day 
appear  to  us  to  be  members  of  the  devil  who  one  day 
shall  be  members  of  Christ." 

"  Our  life  in  the  midst  of  the  world,"  said  he  again, 
"  ought  to  be  such  that,  on  hearing  or  seeing  us,  every 
one  shall  feel  constrained  to  praise  our  heavenly  Father. 
You  proclaim  peace  ;  have  it  in  your  hearts.  Be  not  an 
occasion  of  wrath  or  scandal  to  anyone,  but  by  your 
gentleness  may  all  be  led  to  peace,  concord,  and  good 
works." 

It  was  especially  when  he  undertook  to  cheer  his  dis- 
ciples, to  fortify  them  against  temptations  and  deliver 
them  from  their  power,  that  Francis  was  most  successful. 
However  anxious  a  soul  might  be,  his  words  brought  it 
back  to  serenity.  The  earnestness  which  he  showed  in 
calming  sadness  became  fiery  and  terrible  in  reproving 
those  who  fell  away,  but  in  these  days  of  early  fervor  he 
seldom  had  occasion  to  show  severity  ;  more  often  he 
needed  gently  to  reprove  the  Brothers  whose  piety  led 
them  to  exaggerate  penances  and  macerations. 

When  all  was  finished  and  each  one  had  had  his  part 
in  this  banquet  of  love,  Francis  would  bless  them,  and 
they  would  disperse  in  all  directions  like  strangers  and 
travellers.  They  had  nothing,  but  already  they  thought 
they  saw  the  signs  of  the  grand  and  final  regeneration. 
Like  the  exile  on  Patmos  they  saw  "  the  holy  city,  the 
new  Jerusalem,  coming  down  from  God  out  of  heaven, 
like  a  bride  adorned  for  her  husband  .  .  .  and  the 
throne  upon  which  is  seated  the  Desired  of  all  nations, 


170 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


the  Messiah  of  the  new  times,  he  who  is  to  make  all  things 
new."  1 

Yet  all  eyes  were  turned  toward  Syria,  where  a  French 
knight,  Jean  de  Brienne,  had  just  been  declared  King  of 
Jerusalem  (1210),  and  toward  which  were  hastening  the 
bands  of  the  children's  crusade. 

The  conversion  of  Francis,  radical  as  it  was,  giving 
a  new  direction  to  his  thoughts  and  will,  had  not  had 
power  to  change  the  foundation  of  his  character.  "  In 
a  great  heart  everything  is  great."  In  vain  is  one 
changed  at  conversion — he  remains  the  same.  That 
which  changes  is  not  he  who  is  converted,  but  his  sur- 
roundings ;  he  is  suddenly  introduced  into  a  new 
path,  but  he  runs  in  it  with  the  same  ardor.  Francis 
still  remained  a  knight,  and  it  is  perhaps  this  which  won 
for  him  in  so  high  a  degree  the  worship  of  the  finest 
souls  of  the  Middle  Ages.  There  was  in  him  that  long- 
ing for  the  unknown,  that  thirst  for  adventures  and 
sacrifices,  which  makes  the  history  of  his  century  so 
grand  and  so  attractive,  in  spite  of  many  dark  features. 

Those  who  have  a  genius  far  religion  have  generally 
the  privilege  of  illusion.  They  never  quite  see  how 
large  the  world  is.  When  their  faith  has  moved  a  moun- 
tain they  thrill  with  rapture,  like  the  old  Hebrew 
prophets,  and  it  seems  to  them  that  they  see  the  dawn- 
ing of  the  day  "  when  the  glory  of  the  Lord  will  appear, 
when  the  wolf  and  the  lamb  will  feed  together."  Blessed 
illusion,  that  fires  the  blood  like  a  generous  Tvme>  so  that 
the  soldiers  of  righteousness  hurl  themselves  against  the 
most  terrific  fortresses,  believing  that  these  once  taken 
the  war  will  be  ended. 

Francis  had  found  such  joys  in  his  union  with  poverty 
that  he  held  it  for  proven  that  one  needed  only  to  be  a 
man  to  aspire  after  the  same  happiness,  and  that  the 

1  Rev.  xxi.;  1  Cel.,  46  ;  3  Soc,  57-59  ;  An.  Perns.,  A.  SS.,  p.  600. 


FIRST  ATTEMPTS  TO  REACH  THE  INFIDELS  171 


Saracens  would  be  converted  in  crowds  to  the  gospel  of 
Jesus,  if  only  it  were  announced  to  them  in  all  its  simplic- 
ity. He  therefore  quitted  Portiuncula  for  this  new  kind 
of  crusade.  It  is  not  known  from  what  port  he  embarked. 
It  was  probably  in  the  autumn  of  1212.  A  tempest  hav- 
ing cast  the  ship  upon  the  coast  of  Slavonia,  he  was 
obliged  to  resign  himself  either  to  remain  several  months 
in  those  parts  or  to  return  to  Italy  ;  he  decided  to  re- 
turn, but  found  much  difficulty  in  securing  a  passage  on 
a  ship  which  was  about  to  sail  for  Ancona.  He  had  no 
ill-will  against  the  sailors,  however,  and  the  stock  of  food 
falling  short  he  shared  with  them  the  provisions  with 
which  his  friends  had  overloaded  him. 

No  sooner  had  he  landed  than  he  set  out  on  a  preach- 
ing tour,  in  which  souls  responded  to  his  appeals  1  with 
even  more  eagerness  than  in  times  past.  \Ye  may  sup- 
pose that  he  returned  from  Slavonia  in  the  winter  of 
1212-1213,  and  that  he  employed  the  following  spring  in 
evangelizing  Central  Italy.  It  was  perhaps  during  this 
Lent  that  he  retired  to  an  island  in  Lake  Trasimeno, 
making  a  sojourn  there  which  afterward  became  famous 
in  his  legend.2  However  that  may  be,  a  perfectly  reli- 
able document  shows  him  to  have  been  in  the  Eomagna 
in  the  month  of  May,  1213. 3  One  day  Francis  and  his 
companion,  perhaps  Brother  Leo,  arrived  at  the  chateau 
of  Montefeltro,4  between  Macerata  and  San  Marino.  A 
grand  fête  was  being  given  for  the  reception  of  a  new 
knight,  but  the  noise  and  singing  did  not  affright  them, 
and  without  hesitation  they  entered  the  court,  where  all 

1  1  Cel...  55  and  56  ;  Bon.,  129-132. 

2  Flor.,  7  ;  Spec,  96  ;  Conform.,  223a,  2.  The  fact  of  Francis's  so- 
journ on  an  island  in  this  lake  is  made  certain  by  1  Cel.,  60. 

3  Vide  below,  p.  400.    Cf.  A.  SS. ,  Pp.  823  f. 

*  At  present  Sasso-Feltrio,  between  Conca  and  Marecchio,  south  of  and 
about  two  hours'  walk  from  San  Marino. 


172 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


the  nobility  of  the  country  was  assembled.  Francis  then 
taking  for  his  text  the  two  lines, 

Tanto  è  il  bene  cli'  aspetto 
Ch'ogui  pena  m'è  diletto,1 

preached  so  touching  a  sermon  that  several  of  those 
present  forgot  for  a  moment  the  tourney  for  which  they 
had  come.  One  of  them,  Orlando  dei  Cattani,  Count  of 
Chiusi  in  Casentino,  was  so  much  moved  that,  drawing 
Francis  aside,  "  Father,"  he  said  to  him,  "  I  desire 
much  to  converse  with  you  about  the  salvation  of  my 
soul."  "  Very  willingly,"  replied  Francis  ;  "  but  go  for 
this  morning,  do  honor  to  those  friends  who  have  in- 
vited you,  eat  with  them,  and  after  that  we  will  converse 
as  much  as  you  please." 

So  it  was  done.  The  count  came  back  and  concluded 
the  interview  by  saying,  "I  have  in  Tuscany  a  mountain 
especially  favorable  to  contemplation  ;  it  is  entirely  iso- 
lated and  would  well  suit  anyone  who  desired  to  do 
penance  far  from  the  noises  of  the  world  ;  if  it  pleased 
you  I  would  willingly  give  it  to  you  and  your  brethren 
for  the  salvation  of  my  soul." 

Francis  accepted  it  joyfully,  but  as  he  was  obliged  to 
be  at  Portiuncula  for  the  Whitsunday  chapter  he  post- 
poned the  visit  to  the  Verna2  to  a  more  favorable  time. 

It  was  perhayjs  in  this  circuit  that  he  went  to  Imola  ; 
at  least  nothing  forbids  the  supposition.  Always  cour- 
teous, he  had  gone  immediately  on  his  arrival  to  present 
himself  to  the  bishop,  and  ask  of  him  authority  to  preach. 
"  I  am  not  in  need  of  anyone  to  aid  me  in  my  task,' 

1  The  happiness  that  I  expect  is  so  great  that  all  pain  is  joyful  to  me. 
All  the  documents  give  Francis's  text  in  Italian,  which  is  enough  to  prove 
that  it  was  the  language  not  only  of  his  poems  but  also  of  his  sermons. 
Spec.  92a  ff.    Conform.  113a,  2  ;  231a,  1  ;  Fior.,  Prima  consicl. 

2  See  p.  400. 


FIRST  ATTEMPTS  TO  REACH  THE  INFIDELS  173 


replied  the  bishop  dryly.  Francis  bowed  and  retired, 
more  polite  and  even  more  gentle  than  usual.  But  in 
less  than  hour  he  had  returned.  "  What  is  it,  brother, 
"what  do  you  want  of  me  again  ?  "  "  Monsignor,"  replied 
Francis,  "  when  a  father  drives  his  son  out  at  the  door 
he  returns  by  the  window." 

The  bishop,  disarmed  by  such  pious  persistence,  gave 
the  desired  authorization.1 

The  aim  of  Francis  at  that  time,  however,  was  not  to 
evangelize  Italy  ;  his  friars  were  already  scattered  over  it 
in  great  numbers  ;  and  he  desired  rather  to  gain  them 
access  to  new  countries. 

Not  having  been  able  to  reach  the  infidels  in  Syria,  he 
resolved  to  seek  them  in  Morocco.  Some  little  time 
before  (July,  1212),  the  troops  of  the  Almohades  had  met 
an  irreparable  defeat  in  the  plains  of  Tolosa  ;  beaten  by 
the  coalition  of  the  Kings  of  Aragon,  Navarre,  and  Castile, 
Mohammed-el-Naser  had  returned  to  Morocco  to  die. 
Francis  felt  that  this  victory  of  arms  would  be  nothing 
if  it  were  not  followed  by  a  peaceful  victory  of  the  gospel 
spirit. 

He  was  so  full  of  his  project,  so  much  in  haste  to 
arrive  at  the  end  of  his  journey,  that  very  often  he  would 
forget  his  companion,  and  hastening  forward  would  leave 
him  far  behind.  The  biographers  are  unfortunately  most 
laconic  with  regard  to  this  expedition  ;  they  merely  say 
that  on  arriving  in  Spain  he  was  so  seriously  ill  that  a 
return  home  was  imperative.  Beyond  a  few  local  legends, 
not  very  well  attested,  we  possess  no  other  informa- 
tion upon  the  labors  of  the  Saint  in  this  country,  nor 
upon  the  route  which  he  followed  either  in  going  or 
returning.2 

This  silence  is  not  at  all  surprising,  and  ought  not  to 
make  us  undervalue  the  importance  of  this  mission.  The 

1  2  Cel.,  3,  85  ;  Bon.,  82.  2  1  Cel.,  56  ;  Bon.,  132. 


174 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


one  to  Egypt,  which  took  place  six  years  later,  with  a  whole 
train  of  friars,  and  at  a  time  when  the  Order  was  much 
more  developed,  is  mentioned  only  in  a  few  lines  by 
Thomas  of  Celano  ;  but  for  the  recent  discovery  of  the 
Chronicle  of  Brother  Giordano  di  Giano  and  the  copious 
details  given  by  Jacques  de  Yitry,  we  should  be  reduced 
to  conjectures  upon  that  journey  also.  The  Spanish 
legends,  to  which  allusion  has  just  been  made,  cannot  be 
altogether  without  foundation,  any  more  than  those  which 
concern  the  journey  of  St.  Francis  through  Languedoc 
and  Piedmont  ;  but  in  the  actual  condition  of  the  sour- 
ces it  is  impossible  to  make  a  choice,  with  any  sort  of 
authority,  between  the  historic  basis  and  additions  to  it 
wholly  without  value. 

The  mission  in  Spain  doubtless  took  place  between 
the  Whitsunday  of  1214  and  that  of  1215.1  Francis,  I 
think,  had  passed  the  previous  year  2  in  Italy.  Perhaps 
he  was  then  going  to  see  the  Yerna.  The  March  of  An- 
cona  and  the  Yalley  of  Eieti  would  naturally  have  attracted 
him  equally  about  this  epoch,  and  finally  the  growth  of 
the  two  branches  of  the  Order  must  have  made  necessary 
Ms  presence  at  Portiuncula  and  St.  Damian.  The  ra- 
pidity and  importance  of  these  missions,  ought  in  no 
sense  to  give  surprise,  nor  awakeVi'  exaggerated  critical 
doubts.  It  took  only  a  few  hours  to  become  a  member 
of  the  fraternity,  and  we  may  not  doubt  the  sincerity  of 
these  vocations,  since  their  condition  was  the  imme- 

1  Vide  Wadding,  ami.  1213-1215.  Cf.  A.  SS.,  pp  G02,  603,  825-831. 
3Iark  of  Lisbon,  lib.  i.,  cap.  45,  pp.  78-80  ;  Papini,  Storia  di  S.  Fran- 
cesco, i.,  p.  79  ff.  (Foligno,  1825,  2  vols.,  4to).  It  is  surprising  to  see 
Father  Suysken  giving  so  much  weight  to  the  argumentum  a  silentio. 

-  From  Pentecost,  1213,  to  that  of  1214. — Post  non  multum  rero  tern- 
voris  versus  Mavocldnm  iter  arripuit,  says  Thomas  of  Celano  (1  Cel.,  56), 
after  having  mentioned  the  return  from  Slavonia.  Taking  into  account 
the  author's  usas  loquendi  the  phrase  appears  to  establish  a  certain  in- 
terval between  the  two  missions. 


FIRST  ATTEMPTS  TO  REACH  THE  IXFIDELS  175 


diate  giving  up  of  all  property  of  whatever  kind,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  poor.  The  new  friars  were  barely  received 
when  they  in  their  turn  began  to  receive  others,  often 
becoming  the  heads  of  the  movement  in  whatever  place 
they  happened  to  be.  The  way  in  which  we  see  things 
going  on  in  Germany  in  1221,  and  in  England  in  1224, 
gives  a  very  living  picture  of  this  spiritual  germina- 
tion. 

To  found  a  monastery  it  was  enough  that  two  or  three 
Brothers  should  have  at  their  disposition  some  sort  of  a 
shelter,  whence  they  radiated  out  into  the  city  and  the 
neighboring  country.  It  would,  therefore,  be  as  much 
an  exaggeration  to  describe  St.  Francis  as  a  man  who 
passed  his  life  in  founding  convents,  as  to  deny  alto- 
gether the  local  traditions  which  attribute  to  him  the 
erection  of  a  hundred  monasteries.  In  many  cases  a 
glance  is  enough  to  show  whether  these  -claims  of  an- 
tiquity are  justified;  before  1220  the  Order  had  only 
hermitages  after  the  pattern  of  the  Yerna  or  the  Carceri, 
solely  intended  for  the  Brothers  who  desired  to  pass  some 
time  in  retreat. 

Returned  to  Assisi,  Francis  admitted  to  the  Order  a 
certain  number  of  learned  men,  among  whom  was  per- 
haps Thomas  of  Celano.  The  latter,  in  fact,  says  that 
God  at  that  time  mercifully  remembered  him,  and  he  adds 
further  on  :  "  The  blessed  Francis  was  of  an  exquisite 
nobility  of  heart  and  full  of  discernment  ;  with  the  great- 
est care  he  rendered  to  each  one  what  was  due  him,  with 
wisdom  considering  in  each  case  the  degree  of  their  dig- 
nities." 

This  does  not  harmonize  very  well  with  the  character 
of  Francis  as  we  have  sketched  it  ;  one  can  hardly  imag- 
ine him  preserving  in  his  Order  such  profound  distinc- 
tions as  were  at  that  time  made  between  the  different  so- 
cial ranks,  but  he  had  that  true  and  eternal  politeness 


17G 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


which  has  its  roots  in  the  heart,  and  which  is  only  an 
expression  of  tact  and  love.  It  could  not  be  otherwise 
with  a  man  who  saw  in  courtesy  one  of  the  qualities  of 
God. 

"We  are  approaching  one  of  the  most  obscure  periods 
of  his  life.  After  the  chapter  of  1215  he  seems  to  have 
passed  through  one  of  those  crises  of  discouragement  so 
frequent  with  those  who  long  to  realize  the  ideal  in  this 
world.  Had  he  discovered  the  warning  signs  of  the  mis- 
fortunes which  were  to  come  upon  his  family  ?  Had  he 
come  to  see  that  the  necessities  of  life  were  to  sully  and 
blight  his  dream  ?  Had  he  seen  in  the  check  of  his  mis- 
sions in  Syria  and  Morocco  a  providential  indication  that 
he  had  to  change  his  method  ?  We  do  not  know.  But 
about  this  time  he  felt  the  need  of  turning  to  St.  Clara 
and  Brother  Silvestro  for  counsel  on  the  subject  of  the 
doubts  and  hesitations  which  assailed  him  ;  their  reply 
restored  to  him  peace  and  joy.  God  by  their  mouth 
commanded  him  to  continue  his  apostolate.1 

Immediately  he  rose  and  set  forth  in  the  direction  of 
Bevagmv  with  an  ardor  which  he  had  never  yet  shown. 
In  encouraging  him  to  persevere  Clara  had  in  some  sort 
inoculated  him  with  a  new  enthusiasm.  One  word  from 
her  had  sufficed  to  give  him  back  all  his  courage,  and 
from  this  point  in  his  life  we  find  in  him  more  poetry, 
more  love,  than  ever  before. 

Full  of  joy,  he  was  going  on  his  way  when,  perceiving 
some  flocks  of  birds,  he  turned  aside  a  little  from  the 
road  to  go  to  them.  Far  from  taking  flight,  they  flocked 
around  him  as  if  to  bid  him  welcome.  "  Brother  birds," 
he  said  to  them  then,  "  you  ought  to  praise  and  love  your 
Creator  very  much.     He  has  given  you  feathers  for 

1  Conform,,  110b,  1  ;  Spec,  62b;  Fior.,  16  ;  Bon.,  170-174. 

2  Village  about  two  leagues  S.  W.  from  Assisi.  The  time  is  indirectly 
fixed  by  Bon.,  173.  and  1  Cel.,  58. 


FIRST  ATTEMPTS  TO  REACH  THE  IXFIDEL3  177 


clothing,  wings  for  flying,  and  all  that  is  needful  for  you. 
He  has  made  you  the  noblest  of  his  creatures  ;  he  per- 
mits you  to  live  in  the  pure  air  ;  you  have  neither  to  sow 
nor  to  reap,  and  yet  he  takes  care  of  you,  watches  over 
you  and  guides  you.;!  Then  the  birds  began  to  arch  their 
necks,  to  spread  out  their  wings,  to  open  then.1  beaks,  to 
look  at  him,  as  if  to  thank  him,  while  he  went  up  and 
down  in  their  midst  stroking  them  with  the  border  of  his 
tunic,  sending  them  away  at  last  with  his  blessing.1 

In  this  same  evangelizing  tour,  passing  through  Al- 
viano,2  he  spoke  a  few  exhortations  to  the  people,  but  the 
swallows  so  tilled  the  air  with  their  chirping  that  he 
could  not  make  himself  heard.  "  It  is  my  turn  to  speak," 
he  said  to  them  ;  "  little  sister  swallows,  hearken  to  the 
word  of  God  ;  keep  silent  and  be  very  quiet  until  I  have 
finished."  3 

We  see  how  Francis's  love  extended  to  all  creation, 
how  the  diffused  life  shed  abroad  upon  all  things  in- 
spired and  moved  him.  From  the  sun  to  the  earthworm 
which  we  trample  under  foot,  everything  breathed  in 
his  ear  the  ineffable  sigh  of  beings  that  live  and  suffer 
and  die,  and  in  their  life  as  in  their  death  have  a  part  in 
the  divine  work. 

"  Praised  be  thou,  Lord,  with  all  thy  creatures,  espe- 
cially for  my  brother  Sun  which  gives  us  the  day  and  by 
him  thou  showest  thy  light.  He  is  beautiful  and  radiant 
with  great  splendor  ;  of  thee,  Most  High,  he  is  the  sym- 
bol." 

Here  again,  Francis  revives  the  Hebrew  inspiration, 
the  simple  and  grandiose  view  of  the  prophets  of  Israel. 
<c  Praise   the  Lord  !  "   the  royal  Psalmist  had  sung, 

UCel.  58;  Bon.,  109  and  174;  Fior.,  16;  Spec,  62b;  Conf&rm., 
114b,  2. 

2  About  halfway  between  Orvieto  and  Narni. 

3  1  Cel.,  59  ;  Bon.,  175. 


178 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FPwANCIS 


"  praise  the  Lord,  fire  and  frost,  snow  and  mists,  stormy- 
winds  that  do  his  will,  mountains  and  all  hills,  fruit-trees 
and  all  cedars,  beasts  and  all  cattle,  creeping  things  and 
fowls  with  wings,  kings  of  the  earth  and  all  peoples, 
princes  and  all  judges  of  the  earth,  young  men  and 
maidens,  old  men  and  children,  praise  the  Lord,  praise 
ye  the  Lord  !  " 

The  day  of  the  birds  of  Bevagna  remained  in  his 
memory  as  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  his  whole  life, 
and  though  usually  so  reserved  he  always  loved  to  tell  of 
it  ;  1  it  was  because  he  owed  to  Clara  these  pure  ardors 
which  brought  him  into  a  secret  and  delicious  commun- 
ion with  all  beings  ;  it  was  she  who  had  revived  him 
from  sadness  and  hesitation  ;  in  his  heart  he  bore  an 
immense  gratitude  to  her  who,  just  when  he  needed  it, 
had  known  how  to  return  to  him  love  for  love,  inspiration 
for  inspiration. 

Francis's  sympathy  for  animals,  as  we  see  it  shining 
forth  here,  has  none  of  that  sentimentalism,  so  often 
artificial  and  exclusive  of  all  other  love,  which  certain 
associations  of  his  time  noisily  displayed  ;  in  him  it  is 
only  a  manifestation  of  his  feeling  for  nature,  a  deeply- 
mystical,  one  might  say  pantheistic,  sentiment,  if  the 
word  had  not  a  too  definitely  philosophical  sense,  quite 
opposite  to  the  Franciscan  thought. 

This  sentiment,  which  in  the  poets  of  the  thirteenth 
century  is  so  often  false  and  affected,  was  in  him  not 
only  true,  but  had  in  it  something  alive,  healthy,  robust.2 

1  Ad  liœc,  ut  ipse  dkébat   ...    1  Cel.,  58. 

2  Francis  lias  been  compared  in  this  regard  to  certain  of  liis  contem- 
poraries, but  the  similarity  of  the  words  only  makes  more  evident 
the  diversity  of  inspiration.  Honorius  III.  may  say  :  Forma  rosœ  est 
inferius  angusta,  superius  ampla  et  signifient  quod  Christ  u  s  pauper  fuit 
in  mundo,  sed  est  Dominus  super  omnia  et  implet  unùersa.  Nam  sicut 
forma  rosœ,  etc.  (Horoy,  t.  i.,  col.  xxiv.  and  804),  and  make  a  whole 
sermon  on  the  symbolism  of  the  rose  ;  these  overstrained  dissertations 


FIRST  ATTEMPTS  TO  REACH  THE  INFIDELS  179 


It  is  this  vein  of  poetry  which  awoke  Italy  to  self-con- 
sciousness, made  her  in  a  few  years  forget  the  nightmare 
of  Catharist  ideas,  and  rescued  her  from  pessimism.  By 
it  Francis  became  the  forerunner  of  the  artistic  move- 
ment which  preceded  the  Renaissance,  the  inspirer  of 
that  group  of  Pre-Baphaelites,  awkward,  grotesque  in 
drawing  though  at  times  they  were,  to  whom  we  turn 
to-day  with  a  sort  of  piety,  finding  in  their  ungraceful 
saints  an  inner  life,  a  moral  feeling  which  we  seek  for 
elsewhere  in  vain. 

If  the  voice  of  the  Poverello  of  Assisi  was  so  well 
understood  it  was  because  in  this  matter,  as  in  all  others, 
it  was  entirely  unconventional.  How  far  we  are,  with  him, 
from  the  fierce  or  Pharisaic  piety  of  those  monks  which 
forbids  even  the  females  of  animals  to  enter  their  con- 
vent !  His  notion  of  chastity  in  no  sense  resembles  this 
excessive  prudery.  One  day  at  Sienna  he  asked  for  some 
turtle-doves,  and  holding  them  in  the  skirt  of  his  tunic, 
he  said  :  "  Little  sisters  turtle-doves,  you  are  simple, 
innocent,  and  chaste  ;  why  did  you  let  yourselves  be 
caught?  I  shall  save  you  from  death,  and  have  nests 
made  for  you,  so  that  you  may  bring  forth  young 
and  multiply  according  to  the  commandment  of  our 
Creator." 

And  he  went  and  made  nests  for  them  all,  and  the 
turtle-doves  began  to  lay  eggs  and  bring  up  their  broods 
under  the  eyes  of  the  Brothers.1 

At  Bieti  a  family  of  red-breasts  were  the  guests  of  the 
monastery,  and  the  young  birds  made  marauding  expe- 

have  nothing  to  do  with  the  feeling  for  nature.  It  is  the  arsenal  of 
mediaeval  rhetoric  used  to  dissect  a  word.  It  is  an  intellectual  effort, 
not  a  song  of  love.  The  Imitation  would  say:  If  thy  heart  icere  right 
all  creatures  would  be  for  thee  a  mirror  of  life  and  a  volume  of  holy  doc- 
trine, lib.  ii.,  cap.  2.  The  simple  sentiment  of  the  beauty  of  creation  is- 
absent  here  also  ;  the  passage  is  a  pedagogue  in  disguise. 
Spec. .  157.    Fior.  ;  22. 


180 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


ditions  on  the  very  table  where  the  Brothers  were  eating.1 
Not  far  from  there,  at  Greccio,a  they  brought  to  Francis 
a  leveret  that  had  been  taken  alive  in  a  trap.  "  Come 
to  me,  brother  leveret,"  he  said  to  it.  And  as  the  poor 
creature,  being  set  free,  ran  to  him  for  refuge,  he  took  it 
up,  caressed  it,  and  finally  put  it  on  the  ground  that  it 
might  run  away  ;  but  it  returned  to  him  again  and  again, 
so  that  he  was  obliged  to  send  it  to  the  neighboring  forest 
before  it  would  consent  to  return  to  freedom.3 

One  day  he  was  crossing  the  Lake  of  Eieti.  The 
boatman  in  whose  bark  he  was  making  the  passage 
offered  him  a  tench  of  uncommon  size.  Francis  accepted 
it  with  joy,  but  to  the  great  amazement  of  the  fisherman 
put  it  back  into  the  water,  bidding  it  bless  God.4 

We  should  never  have  done  if  we  were  to  relate  all  the 
incidents  of  this  kind,5  for  the  sentiment  of  nature  was 
innate  with  him  ;  it  was  a  perpetual  communion  which 
made  him  love  the  whole  creation.6  He  is  ravished  with 
the  witchery  of  great  forests  ;  he  has  the  terrors  of  a 
child  when  he  is  alone  at  prayer  in  a  deserted  chapel,  but 
he  tastes  ineffable  joy  merely  in  inhaling  the  perfume  of 
a  flower,  or  gazing  into  the  limpid  water  of  a  brook.7 

This  perfect  lover  of  poverty  permitted  one  luxury — 
he  even  commanded  it  at  Portiuncula — that  of  flowers  ; 
the  Brother  was  bidden  not  to  sow  vegetables  and  useful 
plants  only  ;  he  must  reserve  one  corner  of  good  ground 

1  2  Cel.,  2,  16  ;  Conform.,  148a,  1,  183b,  2.  Cf.  the  story  of  the  sheep 
'   of  Portiuncula  :  Bon.  ,111. 

2  Village  in  the  valley  of  Rieti,  two  hours'  walk  from  that  town,  on 
the  road  to  Terni. 

3  1  Cel.,  60;  Bon.,  113. 

4  1  Cel.,  61  ;  Bon.,  114. 

5  2  Cel.,  3,  54;  Bon.,  109  ;  2  Cel.,  3  ;  103  ff.;  Bon.,  116  ff.;  Bon.,  110; 
1  Cel.,  61  ;  Bon.,  114,  113,  115  ;  1  Cel  ,  79  ;  Fior.,  13,  etc. 

6  2  Cel.,  3,  101  ff.;  Bon..  123. 

7  2  Cel.,  3,  59  ;  1  Cel. ,  SO  and  81. 


FIRST  ATTEMPTS  TO  REACH  THE  IXFIDELS  181 


for  our  sisters,  the  flowers  of  the  fields.  Francis  talked 
with  them  also,  or  rather  he  replied  to  them,  for  their 
mysterious  and  gentle  language  crept  into  the  very  depth 
of  his  heart.1 

The  thirteenth  century  was  prepared  to  understand  the 
voice  of  the  Umbrian  poet  ;  the  sermon  to  the  birds 2 
closed  the  reign  of  Byzantine  art  and  of  the  thought  of 
which  it  was  the  image.  It  is  the  end  of  dogmatism  and 
authority  ;  it  is  the  coming  in  of  individualism  and  in- 
spiration ;  very  uncertain,  no  doubt,  and  to  be  followed  by 
obstinate  reactions,  but  none  the  less  marking  a  date  in 
the  history  of  the  human  conscience.'5  Many  among  the 
companions  of  Francis  were  too  much  the  children  of 
their  century,  too  thoroughly  imbued  with  its  theological 

1  2  Cel.,  3,  101  ;  Spec,  136a  ;  1  Cel.,  81. 

2  This  is  the  scene  in  his  life  most  often  reproduced  by  the  predeces- 
sors of  Giotto.  The  unknown  artist  who  (before  1236)  decorated  the 
nave  of  the  Lower  Church  of  Assisi  gives  five  frescos  to  the  history  of 
Jesus  and  five  to  the  life  of  St.  Francis.  Upon  the  latter  he  represents: 
1,  the  renunciation  of  the  paternal  inheritance  ;  2,  Francis  upholding 
the  Lateran  church;  3,  the  sermon  to  the  birds;  4.  the  stigmata;  5, 
the  funeral.  This  work,  unhappily  very  badly  lighted,  and  about  half 
of  it  destroyed  at  the  time  of  the  construction  of  the  chapels  of  the  nave, 
ought  to  be  engraved  before  it  completely  disappears.  The  history  of 
art  in  the  time  of  Giunta  Pisano  is  still  too  much  enveloped  in  obscu- 
rity for  us  to  neglect  such  a  source  of  information.  M.  Thode  {Franz 
von  Assisi  und  die  Anfànge  dœr  Kunst,  Berlin,  1885,  8vo,  illust.)  and  the 
Rev.  Father  Fratini  (Storin  della  Basilica  d'  Assisi,  Prato,  1882,  8vo)  are 
much  too  brief  so  far  as  these  frescos  are  concerned. 

3  It  is  needless  to  say  that  I  do  not  claim  that  Francis  was  the  only 
initiator  of  this  movement,  still  less  that  he  was  its  creator  ;  he  was  its 
most  inspired  singer,  and  that  may  suffice  for  his  glory.  If  Italy  was 
awakened  it  was  because  her  sleep  was  not  so  sound  as  in  the  tenth 
century  ;  the  mosaics  of  the  facade  of  the  Cathedral  of  Spoleto  (the 
Christ  between  the  Virgin  and  St.  John)  already  belong  to  the  new  art. 
Still,  the  victory  was  so  little  final  that  the  mural  paintings  of  St.  Law- 
rence without  the  walls  and  of  the  Quattro  Coronate,  which  are  subse- 
quent to  it  by  half  a  score  of  years,  relapse  into  a  coarse  Byzantin  ism. 
See  also  those  of  the  Baptistery  of  Florence. 


182 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


and  metaphysical  methods,  to  quite  understand  a  senti- 
ment so  simple  and  profound.1  But  each  in  his  degree 
felt  its  charm.  Here  Thomas  of  Celano's  language  rises 
to  an  elevation  which  we  find  in  no  other  part  of  his 
works,  closing  with  a  picture  of  Francis  which  makes 
one  think  of  the  Song  of  Songs.2 

Of  more  than  middle  height,  Francis  had  a  delicate 
and  kindly  face,  black  eyes,  a  soft  and  sonorous  voice. 
There  was  in  his  Avhole  person  a  delicacy  and  grace 
which  made  him  infinitely  lovely.  All  these  character- 
istics are  found  in  the  most  ancient  portraits.3 

1  Hence  the  more  or  less  subtile  explanations  with  which  they  adorn 
these  incidents. — As  to  the  part  of  animals  in  thirteenth  century  legends 
consult  Caesar  von  Heisterbach,  Strange's  edition,  t.  ii.,  pp.  257  ff. 

2  1  Cel.,  80-88. 

3 1  Cel.,  83  ;  Conform.,  111a.  M.  Thode  (Anfànge,  pp.  76-94)  makes 
a  study  of  some  thirty  portraits.  The  most  important  are  reproduced  in 
Saint  François  (1  vol.,  4to,  Paris,  1885)  ;  1,  contemporary  portrait,  by 
Brother  Eudes,  now  at  Subiaco  (loc.  cit.,  p.  30)  ;  2,  portrait  dating  about 
1280,  by  Giunta  Pisano  (?)  ;  preserved  at  Portiuncula  (loc.  cit.,  p.  384)  ; 
3,  finally,  portrait  dated  1235,  by  Bon.  Berlinghieri,  and  preserved  at 
Pescia,  in  Tuscany  (loc.  cit.,  p.  277).  In  1886  Prof.  Carattoli  studied  with 
great  care  a  portrait  which  dates  from  about  those  years  and  of  which 
he  gives  a  picture  (also  preserved  of  late  years  at  Portiuncula).  Mis- 
cellanea francescana  t.  i.,  pp.  44-48;  cf.  pp.  160,  190,  and  1887,  p.  32. 
M.  Bonghi  has  written  some  interesting  papers  on  the  iconography  of 
St.  Francis  (Francesco  di  Assisi,  1  vol.,  12mo,  Citta  di  Castello,  Lapi, 
1884.    Vide  pp.  103-113). 


CHAPTEE  XI 


THE  INNER  MAN  AND  WONDER-WORKING 

The  missionary  journey,  undertaken  under  the  en- 
couragement of  St.  Clara  and  so  poetically  inaugurated 
by  the  sermon  to  the  birds  of  Bevagna,  appears  to  have 
been  a  continual  triumph  for  Francis.1  Legend  defini- 
tively takes  possession  of  him  ;  whether  he  will  or  no, 
miracles  burst  forth  under  his  footsteps;  quite  una- 
wares to  himself  the  objects  of  which  he  has  made  use 
produce  marvellous  effects  ;  folk  come  out  from  the  vil- 
lages in  procession  to  meet  him,  and  the  biographer 
gives  us  to  hear  the  echo  of  those  religious  festivals  of 
Italy — merry,  popular,  noisy,  bathed  in  sunshine — which 
so  little  resemble  the  fastidiously  arranged  festivals  of 
northern  peoples. 

From  Alviano  Francis  doubtless  went  to  Nami,  one 
of  the  most  charming  little  towns  in  Umbria,  busy  with 
building  a  cathedral  after  the  conquest  of  their  com- 
munal liberties.  He  seems  to  have  had  a  sort  of  predi- 
lection for  this  city  as  well  as  for  its  surrounding  vil- 
lages.2 From  thence  he  seems  to  have  plunged  into  the 
valley  of  Rieti,  where  Greccio,  Fonte-Colombo,  San 
Fabiano,  Sant-Eleuthero,  Poggio-Buscone  retain  even 
stronger  traces  of  him  than  the  environs  of  Assisi. 

1  1  Cel.,  62. 

2  1  Cel.,  66;  cf.  Bon..  180;  1  Cel.,  67;  cf.  Bon.,  182  ;  1  Cel.,  69  ; 
Bon.,  183.  After  St.  Francis's  death,  tlie  Narniates  were  the  first  to 
come  to  pray  at  his  tomb.    1  Cel.,  128,  135,  136,  138,  141  ;  Bon.,  275. 


184 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Thomas  of  Celano  gives  us  no  particulars  of  the  route 
followed,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  he  goes  at  length  into 
the  success  of  the  apostle  in  the  March  of  Ancona,  and 
especially  at  Ascoli.  Did  the  people  of  these  districts 
still  remember  the  appeals  which  Francis  and  Egidio 
had  made  to  them  six  years  before  (1209),  or  must  we 
believe  that  they  were  peculiarly  prepared  to  understand 
the  new  gospel?  However  this  may  be,  nowhere  else 
was  a  like  enthusiasm  shown  ;  the  effect  of  the  sermons 
was  so  great  that  some  thirty  neophytes  at  once  received 
the  habit  of  the  Order. 

The  March  of  Ancona  ought  to  be  held  to  be  the 
Franciscan  province  par  excellence.  There  are  Offida, 
San-Severino,  Macerata,  Fornaro,  Cingoli,  Fermo,  Massa, 
and  twenty  other  hermitages  where,  during  more  than  a 
century,  poverty  was  to  find  its  heralds  and  its  martyrs  ; 
from  thence  came  Giovanni  della  Verna,  Jacopo  di 
Massa,  Conrad  di  Offida,  Angelo  Clareno,  and  those  le- 
gions of  nameless  revolutionists,  dreamers,  and  prophets, 
who  since  the  extirpés  in  1244  by  the  general  of  the 
Order,  Crescentius  of  Jesi,  never  ceased  to  make  new 
recruits,  and  by  their  proud  resistance  to  all  powers 
filled  one  of  the  finest  pages  of  religious  history  in  the 
Middle  Ages. 

This  success,  which  bathed  the  soul  of  Francis  with 
joy,  did  not  arouse  in  him  the  smallest  movement  of 
pride.  Never  has  man  had  a  greater  power  over  hearts, 
because  never  preacher  preached  himself  less.  One  day 
Brother  Masseo  desired  to  put  his  modesty  to  the  test. 

"Why  tliee  ?  Why  thee?  Why  thee?"  he  repeated  again  and 
again,  as  if  to  make  a  mock  of  Francis.  "  What  are  yon  saying  ?" 
cried  Francis  at  last.  "  I  am  saying  that  everybody  follows  thee,  every- 
one desires  to  see  thee,  hear  thee,  and  obey  thee,  and  yet  for  all  that 
thou  art  neither  beautiful,  nor  learned,  nor  of  noble  family.  Whence 
comes  it,  then,  that  it  should  be  thee  whom  the  world  desires  to  follow  ?" 

On  hearing  these  words  the  blessed  Francis,  full  of  joy,  raised  his  eye3 


THE  INNER  MAN  AND  WONDER-WORKING  185 


to  heaven,  and  after  remaining  a  long  time  absorbed  in  contemplation 
he  knelt,  praising  and  blessing  God  with  extraordinary  fervor.  Then 
turning  toward  Masseo,  '  '  Thou  wishest  to  know  why  it  is  I  whom  men 
follow  ?  Thou  wishest  to  know  ?  It  is  because  the  eyes  of  the  Most 
High  have  willed  it  thus  ;  he  continually  watches  the  good  and  the 
wicked,  and  as  his  most  holy  eyes  have  not  found  among  sinners  any 
smaller  man,  nor  any  more  insufficient  and  more  sinful,  therefore  he 
has  chosen  me  to  accomplish  the  marvellous  work  which  God  has  under- 
taken ;  he  chose  me  because  he  could  find  no  one  more  worthless,  and 
he  wished  here  to  confound  the  nobility  and  grandeur,  the  strength,  the 
beauty,  and  the  learning  of  this  world." 

This  reply  throws  a  ray  of  light  upon  St.  Francis's  heart; 
the  message  which  he  brought  to  the  world  is  once  again 
the  glad  tidings  announced  to  the  poor  ;  its  purpose  is 
the  taking  up  again  of  that  Messianic  work  which  the 
Virgin  of  Nazareth  caught  a  glimpse  of  in  her  Magnificat, 
that  song  of  love  and  liberty,  the  sighs  of  which  breathe 
the  vision  of  a  new  social  state.  He  comes  to  remind 
the  world  that  the  welfare  of  man,  the  peace  of  his  heart, 
the  joy  of  his  life,  are  neither  in  money,  nor  in  learn- 
ing, nor  in  strength,  but  in  an  upright  and  sincere  will. 
Peace  to  men  of  good  will. 

The  part  which  he  had  taken  at  Assisi  in  the  con- 
troversies of  his  fellow-citizens  he  would  willingly  have 
taken  in  all  the  rest  of  Italy,  for  no  man  has  ever 
dreamed  of  a  more  complete  renovation  ;  but  if  the  end 
he  sought  was  the  same  as  that  of  many  revolutionaries 
who  came  after  him,  their  methods  were  completely  dif- 
ferent ;  his  only  weapon  was  love. 

The  event  has  decided  against  him.  Apart  from  the 
illumvmti  of  the  March  of  Ancona  and  the  Fraticelli  of 
our  own  Provence  his  disciples  have  vied  with  one 
another  to  misunderstand  his  thought.1 

1  As  concerning  :  1,  fidelity  to  Poverty  ;  2.  prohibition  of  modifying 
the  Rule  ;  3,  the  equal  authority  of  the  Will  and  the  Rule  ;  4.  the 
request  for  privileges  at  the  court  of  Rome  ;  5,  the  elevation  of  the 


186 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Who  knows  if  some  one  will  not  arise  to  take  up  his 
work  ?  Has  not  the  passion  for  worm-eaten  speculations 
yet  made  victims  enough  ?  Are  there  not  many  among 
us  wTho  perceive  that  luxury  is  a  delusion,  that  if  life  is  a 
battle,  it  is  not  a  slaughter-house  where  ferocious  beasts 
wrangle  over  their  prey,  but  a  wrestling  with  the  divine, 
under  whatever  form  it  may  present  itself — truth,  beauty, 
or  love?  Who  knows  whether  this  expiring  nineteenth 
century  will  not  arise  from  its  winding-sheet  to  make 
amende  honorable  and  bequeath  to  its  successor  one 
manly  word  of  faith  ? 

Yes,  the  Messiah  will  come.  He  who  was  announced 
by  Gioacchino  di  Fiore  and  who  is  to  inaugurate  a  new 
epoch  in  the  history  of  humanity  will  appear.  Hope 
maketh  not  ashamed.  In  our  modern  Babylons  and  in 
the  huts  on  our  mountains  are  too  many  souls  who  mys- 
teriously sigh  the  hymn  of  the  great  vigil,  Borate  cœli 
desuper  et  nubes  pluant  Justum,1  for  us  not  to  be  on  the 
eve  of  a  divine  birth. 

All  origins  are  mysterious.  This  is  true  of  matter,  but 
yet  more  true  of  that  life,  superior  to  all  others,  which 
we  call  holiness  ;  it  was  in  prayer  that  Francis  found  the 

friars  to  liigli  ecclesiastical  charges  ;  6.  the  absolute  prohibition  of  put- 
ting themselves  in  opposition  to  the  secular  clergy  ;  7,  the  interdic- 
tion of  great  churches  and  rich  convents.  On  all  these  points  and 
many  others  infidelity  to  Francis's  will  was  complete  in  the  Order  less 
than  twenty-five  years  after  his  death.  We  might  expatiate  on  all 
this  ;  the  Holy  See  in  interpreting  the  Rule  had  canonical  right  on  its 
side,  but  Ubertino  di  Casali  in  saying  that  it  was  perfectly  clear  and  had 
no  need  of  interpretation  had  good  sense  on  his  side  ;  let  that  suffice  ! 
Et  est  stupor  quare  queritur  expositio  super  litteram  sicaricrtam  quia  nul- 
la est  difficultas  in  regulœ  intelligentia.  Arbor  ritœ  crucifixœ,  Venice, 
1485.  lib.  v.,  cap.  3.  Sanctus  xir  Eyidius  tanto  ejulatu  clamabat  super 
regulœ  destructionem  quam  xidebat  quod  ignorantibus  viam  spiritus  quasi 
videbatur  insanus.    Id.  ibid. 

1  Heavens  drop  down  your  dew,  and  let  the  clouds  rain  down  the  Just 
One.    Anthem  for  Advent. 


THE  DOTEE  MAN  AND  TTONDER- WORKING  1ST 

spiritual  strength  which  he  needed  ;  he  therefore  sought 
for  silence  and  solitude.  If  he  knew  how  to  do  battle 
in  the  midst  of  men  in  order  to  win  them  to  the  faith,  he 
loved,  as  Celano  says,  to  fly  away  like  a  bird  going  to 
make  its  nest  upon  the  mountain.1 

With  men  truly  pious  the  prayer  of  the  lips,  the  for- 
mulated prayer,  is  hardly  other  than  an  inferior  form  of 
true  prayer.  Even  when  it  is  sincere  and  attentive,  and 
not  a  mechanical  repetition,  it  is  only  a  prelude  for  souls 
not  dead  of  religious  materialism. 

Nothing  resembles  piety  so  much  as  love.  Formu- 
laries of  prayer  are  as  incapable  of  speaking  the  emotions 
of  the  soul  as  model  love-letters  of  speaking  the  trans- 
ports of  an  impassioned  heart.  To  true  piety  as  well  as 
to  profound  love,  the  formula  is  a  sort  of  profanation. 

To  pray  is  to  talk  with  God,  to  lift  ourselves  up  to 
him,  to  converse  with  him  that  he  may  come  down  to 
us.  It  is  an  act  of  meditation,  of  reflection,  which  pre- 
supposes the  effort  of  all  that  is  most  personal  in  us. 

Looked  at  in  this  sense,  prayer  is  the  mother  of  all 
liberty  and  all  freedom. 

Whether  or  no  it  be  a  soliloquy  of  the  soul  with  itself, 
the  soliloquy  would  be  none  the  less  the  very  foundation 
of  a  strong  individuality. 

With  St.  Francis  as  with  Jesus,  prayer  has  this  char- 
acter of  effort  which  makes  of  it  the  greatest  moral  act. 
In  order  to  truly  know  such  men  one  must  have  been 
able  to  go  with  them,  to  follow  Jesus  up  to  the  mountain 
where  he  passed  his  nights.  Three  favored  ones,  Peter, 
James,  John,  followed  him  thither  one  day  ;  but  to  de- 
scribe what  they  saw,  all  that  a  manly  sursum  corda  added 
to  the  radiance  and  the  mysterious  grandeur  of  him 

1  In  foramibus  petrœ  nidifieabat.  1  Cel.,  71.  Upon  the  prayers  of 
Francis  vide  ibid.,  71  and  72;  2  Cel.,  3,  38-43  ;  Ben.,  139-148.  "  Cf.  1 
Cel.  6  ;  91  ;  103  ;  3  Soc,  8  ;  12  ;  etc. 


188 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


whom  they  adored,  they  were  obliged  to  resort  to  the 
language  of  symbols. 

It  was  so  with  St.  Francis.  For  him  as  for  his  Master 
the  end  of  prayer  is  communion  with  the  heavenly 
Father,  the  accord  of  the  divine  with  the  human  ;  or 
rather  it  is  man  who  puts  forth  his  strength  to  do  the 
work  of  God,  not  saying  to  him  a  mere  passive,  resigned, 
powerless  Fiat,  but  courageously  raising  his  head  :  "  Be- 
hold me,  Lord,  I  delight  to  do  thy  will." 

"  There  are  unfathomable  depths  in  the  human  soul, 
because  at  the  bottom  is  God  himself."  Whether  this 
God  be  transcendent  or  immanent,  whether  he  be  One, 
the  Creator,  the  eternal  and  immutable  Principle,  or 
whether  he  be,  as  say  the  doctors  beyond  the  Rhine,  the 
ideal  objectivation  of  our  Me,  is  not  the  question  for  the 
heroes  of  humanity.  The  soldier  in  the  thick  of  battle 
does  not  philosophize  as  to  how  much  truth  or  falsehood 
there  is  in  the  patriotic  sentiment  ;  he  takes  his  arms  and 
fights  at  the  peril  of  his  life.  So  the  soldiers  of  spiritual 
conflicts  seek  for  strength  in  prayer,  in  reflection,  contem- 
plation, inspiration  ;  all,  poets,  artists,  teachers,  saints, 
legislators,  prophets,  leaders  of  the  people,  learned  men, 
philosophers,  all  draw  from  this  same  source. 

But  it  is  not  without  difficulty  that  the  soul  unites  itself 
to  God,  or  if  one  prefers,  that  it  finds  itself.  A  prayer 
ends  at  last  in  divine  communion  only  when  it  began  by 
a  struggle.  The  patriarch  of  Israel,  asleep  near  Bethel, 
had  already  divined  this  :  the  God  who  passes  by  tells 
his  name  only  to  those  who  stop  him  and  do  him  violence 
to  learn  it.    He  blesses  only  after  long  hours  of  conflict. 

The  gospel  has  found  an  untranslatable  word  to  char- 
acterize the  prayers  of  Jesus,  it  compares  the  conflict 
which  preceded  the  voluntary  immolation  of  Christ  to 
the  death-struggle  :  Foetus  in  agonia.1    "We  might  say  of 

'Luke,  xxii.  44. 


THE  INNEE  MAN  AND  WONDER-WORKING  189 


his  life  that  it  had  been  a  long  temptation,  a  struggle,  a 
prayer,  since  these  words  only  express  different  moments 
of  spiritual  activity. 

Like  their  Master,  the  disciples  and  successors  of 
Christ  can  conquer  their  own  souls  only  through  perse- 
verance. But  these  words,  empty  of  meaning  for  devout 
conventicles,  have  had  a  tragic  sense  for  men  of  religious 
genius. 

Nothing  is  more  false,  historically,  than  the  saints  that 
adorn  our  churches,  with  their  mincing  attitude,  their 
piteous  expression,  that  indescribably  anaemic  and  ema- 
ciated— one  may  almost  say  emasculated — air  which 
shows  in  their  whole  nature  ;  they  are  pious  seminarists 
brought  up  under  the  direction  of  St.  Alphonso  di  Li- 
guori  or  of  St.  Louis  di  Gonzagua  ;  they  are  not  saints, 
not  the  violent  who  take  the  kingdom  of  heaven  by  force. 

We  have  come  to  one  of  the  most  delicate  features  of 
the  life  of  Francis — his  relations  with  diabolical  powers. 
Customs  and  ideas  have  so  profoundly  changed  in  all  that 
concerns  the  existence  of  the  devil  and  his  relations  with 
men,  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  picture  to  oneself  the 
enormous  place  which  the  thought  of  demons  occupied 
at  that  time  in  the  minds  of  men. 

The  best  minds  of  the  Middle  Ages  believed  without 
a  doubt  in  the  existence  of  the  perverse  spirit,  in  his 
perpetual  transformations  in  the  endeavor  to  tempt  men 
and  cause  them  to  fall  into  his  snares.  Even  in  the  six- 
teenth century,  Luther,  who  undermined  so  many  beliefs, 
had  no  more  doubt  of  the  personal  existence  of  Satan 
than  of  sorcery,  conjurations,  or  possessions.1 

1  Felix  Kuhn  :  Lutter,  sa  tie  et  son  œuvre,  Paris,  1883,  3  vols.,  8vo. 
t.  i.,  p.  128  ;  t.  ii.,  p.  9  ;  t.  iii.,  p.  257.  Benvenuto  Cellini  does  not  hes- 
itate to  describe  a  visit  which,  he  made  one  day  to  the  Coliseum  in  com- 
pany with  a  magician  whose  words  evoked  clouds  of  devils  who  filled 
the  whole  place.  B.  Cellini,  La  vita  seritta  da  lui  medeêimo,  Bianchrs 
edition,  Florence..  1890,  12mo.  p.  33. 


100 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Finding  in  their  souls  a  wide  background  of  grandeur 
and  wretchedness,  whence  they  sometimes  heard  a  burst 
of  distant  harmonies  calling  them  to  a  higher  life,  soon 
to  be  overpowered  by  the  clamors  of  the  brute,  our  an- 
cestors could  not  refrain  from  seeking  the  explanation  of 
this  duel.  They  found  it  in  the  conflict  of  the  demons 
with  God. 

The  devil  is  the  prince  of  the  demons,  as  God  is  the 
prince  of  the  angels  ;  capable  of  all  transformations,  they 
carry  on  to  the  end  of  time  terrible  battles  which  will  end 
in  the  victory  of  God,  but  meantime  each  man  his  whole 
life  long  is  contended  for  by  these  two  adversaries,  and 
the  noblest  souls  are  naturally  the  most  disputed. 

This  is  how  St.  Francis,  with  all  men  of  his  time,  ex- 
plained the  disquietudes,  terrors,  anguish,  with  which  his 
heart  was  at  times  assailed,  as  well  as  the  hopes,  consola- 
tions, joys  in  which  in  general  his  soul  was  bathed. 
Wherever  we  follow  his  steps  local  tradition  has  pre- 
served the  memory  of  rude  assaults  of  the  tempter  which 
he  had  to  undergo. 

It  is  no  doubt  useless  to  recall  here  the  elementary  fact 
that  if  manners  change  with  the  times,  man  himself  is 
quite  as  strangely  modified.  If,  according  to  education, 
and  the  manner  of  life,  such  or  such  a  sense  may  develop 
an  acuteness  which  confounds  common  experience — hear- 
ing in  the  musician,  touch  with  the  blind,  etc. — we  may 
estimate  by  this  how  much  sharper  certain  senses  may 
have  been  then  than  now.  Several  centuries  ago  visual 
delusion  was  with  adults  what  it  is  now  with  children  in 
remotest  country  parts.  A  quivering  leaf,  a  nothing,  a 
breath,  an  unexplained  sound  creates  an  image  which 
they  see  and  in  the  reality  of  which  they  believe  abso- 
lutely. Man  is  all  of  a  piece  ;  the  hyperesthesia  of  the 
Avili  presupposes  that  of  the  sensibility,  one  is  con- 
ditioned on  the  other,  and  it  is  this  Avhich  makes  men  of 


THE  INNER  MAX  AND  WONDER-WORKING  191 


revolutionary  epochs  so  much  greater  than  nature.  It 
would  be  absurd  under  pretext  of  truth  to  try  to  bring 
them  back  to  the  common  measures  of  our  contemporary 
society,  for  they  were  veritably  demigods  for  good  as  for 
evil. 

Legends  are  not  always  absurd.  The  men  of  '93  are 
still  near  to  us,. but  it  is  nevertheless  with  good  right 
that  legend  has  taken  possession  of  them,  and  it  is  piti- 
able to  see  these  men  who,  ten  times  a  day,  had  to  take 
resolutions  where  everything  was  at  stake — their  destin v, 
that  of  their  ideas,  and  sometimes  that  of  their  country 
— judged  as  if  they  had  been  mere  worthy  citizens,  with 
leisure  to  discuss  at  length  every  morning  the  garments 
they  were  to  wear  or  the  menu  of  a  dinner.  Most  of  the 
time  historians  have  perceived  only  a  part  of  the  truth 
about  them  ;  for  not  only  were  there  two  men  in  them, 
almost  all  of  them  are  at  the  same  time  poets,  dema- 
gogues, prophets,  heroes,  martyrs.  To  write  history, 
then,  is  to  translate  and  transpose  almost  continually. 
The  men  of  the  thirteenth  century  could  not  bring  them- 
selves to  not  refer  to  an  exterior  cause  the  inner  motions 
of  their  souls.  In  what  appears  to  us  as  the  result  of 
our  own  reflections  they  saw  inspiration  ;  where  we  say 
desires,  instincts,  passions,  they  said  temptation,  but  we 
must  not  permit  these  differences  of  language  to  make 
us  overlook  or  tax  with  trickery  a  part  of  their  spiritual 
life,  bringing  us  thus  to  the  conclusions  of  a  narrow  and 
ignorant  rationalism. 

St.  Francis  believed  himself  to  have  many  a  time 
fought  with  the  devil  ;  the  horrible  demons  of  the  Etruscan 
Inferno  still  haunted  the  forests  of  Umbria  and  Tuscany  ; 
but  while  for  his  contemporaries  and  some  of  his  dis- 
ciples apparitions,  prodigies,  possessions,  are  daily  phe- 
nomena, for  him  they  are  exceptional,  and  remain  entirely 
in  the  background.    In  the  iconography  of  St.  Benedict, 


192 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


as  in  that  of  most  of  the  popular  saints,  the  devil  occupies 
a  preponderant  place  ;  in  that  of  St.  Francis  he  dis- 
appears so  completely  that  in  the  long  series  of  Giotto's 
frescos  at  Assisi  he  is  not  seen  a  single  time.1 

In  the  same  way  all  that  is  magic  and  miracle-working 
occupies  in  his  life  an  entirely  secondary  rank.  Jesus 
in  the  Gospels  gave  his  apostles  power  to  cast  out  evil 
spirits,  and  to  heal  all  sickness  and  all  infirmity.2 
Francis  surely  took  literally  these  words,  which  made 
a  part  of  his  Rule.  He  believed  that  he  could  work 
miracles,  and  he  willed  to  do  so  ;  but  his  religious 
thought  was  too  pure  to  permit  him  to  consider  miracles 
otherwise  than  as  an  entirely  exceptional  means  of  reliev- 
ing the  sufferings  of  men.  Not  once  do  we  see  him 
resorting  to  miracle  to  prove  his  apostolate  or  to  bolster 
up  his  ideas.  His  tact  taught  him  that  souls  are  worthy 
of  being  won  by  better  means.  This  almost  complete 
absence  of  the  marvellous  3  is  by  so  much  the  more  re- 
markable that  it  is  in  absolute  contradiction  with  the 
tendencies  of  his  time.4 

1  On  the  devil  and  Francis  vide  1  Cel.,  68,  72  ;  3  Soc,  12  ;  2  Cel.,  1, 
6;  3,  10;  53;  58-65;  Bon.,  59-62.  Cf.  Eccl.,  3;  5;  13;  Fior.,  29; 
Spec,  110b.  To  form  an  idea  of  the  part  taken  by  the  devil  in  the  life 
of  a  monk  at  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century,  one  must  read 
the  Dialogus  miraculorium  of  Cassar  von  Heisterbach. 

2  Matthew,  x.  1. 

3  Miracles  occupy  only  ten  paragraphs  (61-70)  in  1  Cel. ,  and  of  this 
number  there  are  several  which  can  hardly  be  counted  as  Francis's 
miracles,  since  they  were  performed  by  objects  which  had  belonged  to 
him. 

4  Heretics  often  took  advantage  of  this  thirst  for  the  marvellous  to 
dupe  the  catholics.  The  Cathari  of  Moncoul  made  a  portrait  of  the 
Virgin  representing  her  as  one  eyed  and  toothless,  saying  that  in  his 
humility  Christ  had  chosen  a  very  ugly  woman  for  mother.  They  had 
no  difficulty  in  healing  several  cases  of  disease  by  its  means;  the  image 
became  famous,  was  venerated  almost  everywhere,  and  accomplished 
many  miracles  until  the  day  when  the  heretics  divulged  the  deception, 
to  the  great  scandal  of  the  faithful.    Egbert  von  Schonau,  Contra 


THE  INNER  MAN  AND  VTONDER-WOllKIXG  193 


Open  the  life  of  his  disciple,  St.  Anthony  of  Padua 
(•J*  1231)  ;  it  is  a  tiresome  catalogue  of  prodigies,  heal- 
ings, resurrections.  One  would  say  it  was  rather  the 
prospectus  of  some  druggist  who  had  invented  a  new 
drug  than  a  call  to  men  to  conversion  and  a  higher 
life.  It  may  interest  invalids  or  devotees,  but  neither 
the  heart  nor  the  conscience  is  touched  by  it.  It  must 
be  said  in  justice  to  Anthony  of  Padua  that  his  rela- 
tions with  Francis  appear  to  have  been  very  slight. 
Among  the  earliest  disciples  who  had  time  to  fathom 
their  master's  thought  to  the  very  depths  we  find 
traces  of  this  noble  disdain  of  the  marvellous  ;  they 
knew  too  well  that  the  perfect  joy  is  not  to  astound  the 
world  with  prodigies,  to  give  sight  to  the  blind,  nor 
even  to  revive  those  who  have  been  four  days  dead,  but 
that  it  lives  in  the  love  that  goes  even  to  self-immola- 
tion.   Mihi  absit  gloriari  nisi  in  cruce  .Domini.1 

Thus  Brother  Egidio  asked  of  God  grace  not  to  per- 
form miracles  ;  he  saw  in  them,  as  in  the  passion  for 
learning,  a  snare  in  which  the  proud  would  be  taken,  and 
which  would  distract  the  Order  from  its  true  mission.2 

St.  Francis's  miracles  are  all  acts  of  love  ;  the  greater 
number  of  them  are  found  in  the  healing  of  nervous  mala- 
dies, those  apparently  inexplicable  disquietudes  which  are 
the  cruel  afflictions  of  critical  times.  His  gentle  glance, 
at  once  so  compassionate  and  so  strong,  which  seemed 
*!ike  a  messenger  from  his  heart,  often  sufficed  to  make 
those  who  met  it  forget  all  their  suffering. 

The  evil  eye  is  perhaps  a  less  stupid  superstition  than 

Catharos.  Serm.  L  cap.  2.  (Patrol,  lat.  Migne  t.  195.)  Cf.  Heister- 
bach,  loo.  cit.,  v.  18.  Luc  de  Tuy,  De  altera  Vita,  lib.  ii.  9  ;  iii.  9,  18 
(Patrol.  Migne.,  208). 

1  k'  But  God  forbid  that  I  should  glory  save  in  the  cross  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ."  Gal.  vi.  14.  This  is  to  this  day  the  motto  of  the 
Brothers  Minor. 

2  Spec,  182a  ;  200a;  232a.    Cf.  199a. 

13 


194  LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 

is  generally  fancied.  Jesus  was  right  in  saying  that  a 
look  sufficed  to  make  one  an  adulterer  ;  but  there  is  also 
a  look — that  of  the  contemplative  Mary,  for  example — 
which  is  worth  all  sacrifices,  because  it  includes  them  all, 
because  it  gives,  consecrates,  immolates  him  who  looks. 

Civilization  dulls  this  power  of  the  glance.  A  part 
of  the  education  the  world  gives  us  consists  in  teaching 
our  eyes  to  deceive,  in  making  them  expressionless,  in 
extinguishing  their  flames;  but  simple  and  straightfor- 
ward natures  never  give  up  using  this  language  of  the 
heart,  "which  brings  life  and  health  in  its  beams." 

"A  Brother  was  suffering  unspeakable  tortures  ;  some- 
times he  would  roll  upon  the  ground,  striking  against 
whatever  lay  in  his  way,  frothing  at  the  mouth,  horrible 
to  see  ;  at  times  he  would  become  rigid,  and  again,  after 
remaining  stark  outstretched  for  a  moment,  would  roll 
about  in  horrible  contortions  ;  sometimes  lying  in  a  heap 
on  the  ground,  his  feet  touching  his  head,  he  would  bound 
upward  as  high  as  a  man's  head."  Francis  came  to  see 
him  and  healed  him.1 

But  these  are  exceptions,  and  the  greater  part  of  the 
time  the  Saint  withdrew  himself  from  the  entreaties  of 
his  companions  when  they  asked  miracles  at  his  hands. 

To  sum  up,  if  we  take  a  survey  of  -the  whole  field  of 
Francis's  piety,  we  see  that  it  proceeds  from  the  secret 
union  of  his  soul  with  the  divine  by  prayer  ;  this  intui- 
tive power  of  seeing  the  ideal  classes  him  with  the  mys* 
tics.  He  knew,  indeed,  both  the  ecstasy  and  the  liberty 
of  mysticism,  but  we  must  not  forget  those  features  of 
character  which  separate  him  from  it,  particularly  his 
apostolic  fervor.  Besides  this  his  piety  had  certain  pe- 
culiar qualities  which  it  is  necessary  to  point  out. 

And  first,  liberty  with  respect  of  observances  :  Francis 
felt  all  the  emptiness  and  pride  of  most  religious  observ- 

1  1  Cel.,  67. 


THE  INNEE  MAN  AND  WONDER-WORKING  19Ô 


ance.  He  saw  the  snare  that  lies  hidden  there,  for  the 
man  who  carefully  observes  all  the  minutiae  of  a  relig- 
ious code  risks  forgetting  the  supreme  law  of  love.  More 
than  this,  the  friar  who  lavs  upon  himself  a  certain  num- 
ber of  supererogatory  facts  gains  the  admiration  of  the 
ignorant,  but  the  pleasure  which  he  finds  in  this  admira- 
tion actually  transforms  his  pious  act  into  sin.  Thus, 
strangely  enough,  contrary  to  other  founders  of  orders, 
he  was  continually  easing  the  strictness  of  the  various 
rules  which  he  laid  down.1  We  may  not  take  this  to  be  a 
mere  accident,  for  it  was  only  after  a  struggle  with  his 
disciples  that  he  made  his  will  prevail  ;  and  it  was  pre- 
cisely those  who  were  most  disposed  to  relax  their  vow 
of  poverty  who  were  the  most  anxious  to  display  certain 
bigoted  observances  before  the  public  eye. 

"  The  sinner  can  fast,"  Francis  would  say  at  such 
times  ;  "  he  can  pray,  weep,  macerate  himself,  but  one 
thing  he  cannot  do,  he  cannot  be  faithful  to  God."  Noble 
words,  not  unworthy  to  fall  from  the  lips  of  him  who 
came  to  preach  a  worship  in  spirit  and  in  truth,  without 
temple  or  priest  ;  or  rather  that  every  fireside  shall  be  a 
temple  and  every  believer  a  priest. 

Eeligious  formalism,  in  whatever  form  of  worship, 
always  takes  on  a  forced  and  morose  manner.  Phari- 
sees of  every  age  disfigure  their  faces  that  no  one  may 
be  unaware  of  their  godliness.  Francis  not  merely  could 
not  endure  these  grimaces  of  false  piety,  he  actually 
counted  mirth  and  joy  in  the  number  of  religious  duties. 

How  shall  one  be  melancholy  who  has  in  the  heart  an 
inexhaustible  treasure  of  life  and  truth  which  only  in- 
creases as  one  draws  upon  it?    How  be  sad  when  in 

1  Secundum  primam  regulam  fratres  feria  quarta  et  sexta  et  per  licen- 
tiam  beaii  Francisci  feria  seeunda  et  mbbato  jejunabant.  Giord.  11.  cf. 
Beg.  1221,  cap.  3  and  Reg.  1223,  cap.  3,  where  Friday  is  the  only  fast 
day  retained. 


19G  LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 

spite  of  falls  one  never  ceases  to  make  progress?  The 
pious  soul  which  grows  and  develops  has  a  joy  like  that 
of  the  child,  happy  in  feeling  its  weak  little  limbs  grow- 
ing strong  and  permitting  it  every  day  a  further  exertion. 

The  word  joy  is  perhaps  that  which  comes  most  of- 
ten to  the  pen  of  the  Franciscan  authors  ; 1  the  master 
went  so  far  as  to  make  it  one  of  the  precepts  of  the  Ride.2 
He  was  too  good  a  general  not  to  know  that  a  joyous 
army  is  always  a  victorious  army.  In  the  history  of  the 
early  Franciscan  missions  there  are  bursts  of  laughter 
which  ring  out  high  and  clear.3 

For  that  matter,  we  are  apt  to  imagine  the  Middle 
Ages  as  much  more  melancholy  than  they  really  were. 
Men  suffered  much  in  those  days,  but  the  idea  of  grief 
being  never  separated  from  that  of  penalty,  suffering  was 
either  an  expiation  or  a  test,  and  sorrow  thus  regarded 
loses  its  sting  ;  light  and  hope  shine  through  it. 

Francis  drew  a  part  of  his  joy  from  the  communion. 
He  gave  to  the  sacrament  of  the  eucharist  that  worship 
imbued  with  unutterable  emotion,  with  joyful  tears,  which 
has  aided  some  of  the  noblest  of  human  souls  to  endure 
the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day. 1  The  letter  of  the  dogma 
was  not  fixed  in  the  thirteenth  century  as  it  is  to-day,  but 
all  that  is  beautiful,  true,  potent,  eternal  in  the  mystical 
feast  instituted  by  Jesus  was  then  alive  in  every  heart. 

The  eucharist  was  truly  the  viaticum  of  the  soul.  Like 
the  pilgrims  of  Emmaus  long  ago,  in  the  hour  when  the 
shades  of  evening  fall  and  a  vague  sadness  invades  the 
soul,  when  the  phantoms  of  the  night  awake  and  seem  to 

1  1  Cel.,  10;  22  ;  27  ;  31  ;  42  ;  80  ;  2  Cel.,  1,  1  ;  3,  03-68  ;  Eccl.,  5  ; 
6  ;  Giord. ,  21  ;  Spec,  119a  ;  Conform.,  143a,  2. 

2  Caveant  fraires  quod  non  ostendant  se  tristes  cxtrinseciis  nulilosos  et 
hypocritas  ;  sed  ostendant  se  gaudentis  in  Domine,  hilares  et  convenientes 
gratiosos. 

3  Eccl.,  loc.  cit.;  Giord.,  loc.  cit. 

*■  Vide  Test;  1  Cel.,  46  ;  62  ;  75  ;  2  Cel.,  3,  129  ;  Spec.,  44a. 


THE  INNER  MAN  AND  WONDER-WORKING  197 

loom  up  behind  all  our  thoughts,  our  fathers  saw  the 
divine  and  mysterious  Companion  coming  toward  them  ; 
they  drank  in  his  words,  they  felt  his  strength  descend- 
ing upon  their  hearts,  all  their  inward  being  warmed 
again,  and  again  they  whispered,  "  Abide  with  us,  Lord, 
for  the  day  is  far  spent  and  the  night  approacheth." 
And  often  their  prayer  was  heard. 


CHAPTER  XII 


THE  CHAPTER  GENERAL  OF  1217 1 

After  Whitsunday  of  1217  chronological  notes  of 
Francis's  life  are  numerous  enough  to  make  error  almost 

1  The  commencement  of  the  great  missions  and  the  institution  of  pro- 
vincial ministers  is  usually  fixed  either  at  1217  or  1219,  but  both  these 
dates  present  great  difficulties.  I  confess  that  I  do  not  understand  the 
vehemence  with  which  partisans  of  either  side  defend  their  opinions. 
The  most  important  text  is  a  passage  in  the  3  Soc,  62  :  Expletis  iVique 
undecim  annis  ab  inceptione  religionis,  et  multiplicatis  numéro  et  mérita 
fratribus,  electi  f uerant  ministri,  et  missi  cum  aliquot  fratribus  quasi  per 
univcrsas  mundi  ptrovincias  in  quibus  fides  catJiolica  colitur  et  sermtur. 

What  does  this  expression,  inceptio  religionis,  mean  ?  At  a  first  read- 
ing one  unhesitatingly  takes  it  to  refer  to  the  foundation  of  the  Order, 
which  occurred  in  April,  1209,  by  the  reception  of  the  first  Brothers  ; 
but  on  adding  eleven  full  years  to  this  date  we  reach  the  summer  of 
1220.  This  is  manifestly  too  late,  for  the  3  Soc.  say  that  the  brethren 
who  went  out  were  persecuted  in  most  of  the  countries  beyond  the 
mountains,  as  being  accredited  by  no  pontifical  letter  ;  but  the  bull 
Cum  dilecti,  bears  the  date  of  June  11,  1219.  We  are  thus  led  to  think 
that  the  eleven  years  are  not  to  be  counted  from  the  reception  of  the 
first  Brothers,  but  from  Francis's  conversion,  which  the  authors  might 
well  speak  of  as  inceptio  religionis,  and  1206  +  H  —  1217.  The  use  of 
this  expression  to  designate  conversion  is  not  entirely  without  example. 
Glassberger  says  (An.fr.,  p.  9)  :  Ordinem  minorum  incepit  anno  1206. 
Those  who  admit  1219  are  obliged  (like  the  Bollandists,  for  example), 
to  attribute  an  inaccuracy  to  the  text  of  the  3  Soc,  that  of  having 
counted  eleven  years  as  having  passed  when  there  had  been  only  ten. 
We  should  notice  that  in  the  two  other  chronological  indications  given 
by  the  3  Soc.  (27  and  62)  they  count  from  the  conversion,  that  is  from 
1206,  as  also  Thomas  of  Celano,  88,  105.  119,  97,  88.  57.  55,  21.  Curi. 
ously,  the  Conformities  reproduce  the  passage  of  the  3  Soc.  (118b,  1), 


THE  CHAPTER-GENERAL  OF  1217 


199 


impossible.  Unhappily,  this  is  not  the  ease  for  the 
eighteen  months  which  precede  it  (autumn  of  1215- 
Whitsunday,  1217).  For  this  period  we  are  reduced  to 
conjecture,  or  little  better. 

As  Francis  at  that  time  undertook  no  foreign  mission, 
he  doubtless  employed  his  time  in  evangelizing  Central 
Italy  and  in  consolidating  the  foundations  of  his  institu- 
tion. His  presence  at  Eome  during  the  Lateran  Council 
(November  11-30,  1215)  is  possible,  but  it  has  left  no 
trace  in  the  earliest  biographies.  The  Council  certainly 
took  the  new  Order  into  consideration,1  but  it  was  to  re- 
but with  the  alteration  :  Nono  anno  ab  inceptione  religiords.  Giordano 
di  Giano  opens  the  door  to  many  scruples  :  Anno  vero  Domini  1219  et 
anno  conversionis  ejus  decimo  j rater  Fran ciscus  .  .  .  misit  fratres 
in  Franciam,  in  Theutoniam,  in  Hungariam,  in  Hespaniam,  Giord.,  3. 
As  a  little  later  the  same  author  properly  harmonizes  1219  with  the  thir- 
teenth year  from  Francis's  conversion,  everyone  is  in  agreement  in 
admitting  that  the  passage  cited  needs  correction  ;  we  have  unfortu- 
nately only  one  manuscript  of  this  chronicle.  Glassberger,  who  doubt- 
less had  another  before  him,  substitutes  1217,  but  he  may  have  drawn 
this  date  from  another  document.  It  is  noteworthy  that  Brother  Gior- 
dano gives  as  simultaneous  the  departure  of  the"  friars  for  Germany, 
Hungary,  and  France  ;  but,  as  to  the  latter  country,  it  certainly  took 
place  in  1217.    So  the  Speculum.  44a. 

The  chronicle  of  the  xxiv.  generals  and  Mark  of  Lisbon  (Diola's  ed., 
t.  i.,  p.  82)  holds  also  to  1217,  so  that,  though  not  definitely  established, 
it  would  appear  that  this  date  should  be  accepted  until  further  informa- 
tion. Starting  from  slightly  different  premises,  the  learned  editors  of 
the  Analecta  arrive  at  the  same  conclusion  (t.  ii.,  pp.  25-86).  Cf.  Evers, 
Analecta  ad  Fr.  Minorum  ïristoriam,  Leipsic,  1882,  4to,  pp.  7  and  11. 
That  which  appears  to  me  decidedly  to  tip  the  balance  in  favor  of  1217, 
is  the  fact  that  the  missionary  friars  were  persecuted  because  they  had  no 
document  of  legitimation  ;  and  in  1219  they  would  have  had  the  bull 
Cum  dilecti,  from  June  11th  of  that  year.  The  Bollandists.  who  hold 
for  1219,  have  so  clearly  seen  this  argument  that  they  have  been  obliged 
to  deny  the  authenticity  of  the  bull  (or  at  least  to  suppose  it  wrongly 
dated).    A.  SS. ,  p.  839. 

1  Tide  A.  SS.,  p.  604.  Cf.  Angelo  Clareno,  Tribul.  ArcMv.,L,-p. 
559.  A  papa  Innocentis  fuit  omnibus  annuntiatum  in  concilio  generali 
.    .    .  sicut  sanctus  vir  fr.  Leo  scribit  et  fr.  Johannes  de  Celano.  These 


200 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


new  the  invitation  made  to  it  five  years  before  by  the 
supreme  pontiff,  to  choose  one  of  the  Rules  already 
approved  by  the  ChurcM.1  St.  Dominic,  who  was  then 
at  Rome  to  beg  for  the  confirmation  of  his  institute, 
received  the  same  counsel  and  immediately  conformed  to 
it.  The  Holy  See  wordd  willingly  have  conceded  special 
constitutions  to  the  Brothers  Minor,  if  they  had  adopted 
for  a  base  the  Rule  ,of  St.  Benedict  ;  thus  the-  Clarisses, 
except  those  of  St.;Damian,  while  preserving  their  name 
and  a  certain  number  of  their  customs,  were  obliged  to 
profess  the  Benedictine  rule. 

In  spite  of  all  solicitations,  Francis  insisted  upon  re- 
taining his  own  Rule.  One  is  led  to  believe  that  it  was 
to  confer  upon;  these  questions  that  we  find  him  at  Peru- 
gia in  July,  1216,  when  Innocent  III.  died.3 

However  this  may  be,  about  this  epoch  the  chapters 
took  on  a  great  importance.  The  Church,  which  had 
looked  on  at  the  foundation  of  the  Order  with  somewhat 
mixed  feelings,  could  no  longer  rest  content  with  being 
the  mere  spectator  of  so  profound  a  movement  ;  it  saw 
the  need  of  utilizing  it. 

Ugolini  was  marvellously  well  prepared  for  such  a 
task.  Giovanni  di  San  Paolo,  Bishop  of  the  Sabine, 
charged  by  Innocent  III.  to  look  after  the  Brothers,  died 
in  1216,  and  Ugolini  was  not  slow  to  offer  his  protection 

lines  have  not  perhaps  the  significance  which  one  would  he  led  to  give 
them  at  the  first  glance,  their  author  having  perhaps  confounded  consi- 
lium and  consistorium.  The  Speculum,  20b  says  :  Earn  {Regtdam  In- 
nocentius)  approvabit  et  concessit  et  posted  in  consistorio  omnibus  annun- 
tiacit 

1  2s e  nimia  Religionem  dirersitas  gravem  in  Ecclesia  Dei  confusionem 
inducat,  firmiter  proMbemus,  ne  quiz  de  cœtero  novam  Religionem  inve- 
niat  ;  sed  quicumque  voluerit  ad  Religionem  converti,  unam  de  approbatis 
assumât.  Labbé  and  Cossart  :  Sacrosancta  concilia,  Paris,  1672,  t.  xi., 
col.  165. 

2  Eccl.,  15  {An.  franc,  t.  1,  p.  253)  :  Innocentium  in  cujus  obitu  fait 
presentialiter  S.  Francisais. 


THE  CHAPTER-GEXERAL  OF  1217 


201 


to  Francis,  who  accepted  it  with  gratitude.  This  extraor- 
dinary offer  is  recounted  at  length  by  the  Three  Com- 
panions.1 It  must  certainly  be  fixed  in  the  summer  of 
1216 2  immediately  after  the  death  of  Giovanni  di  San 
Paolo. 

It  is  very  possible  that  the  first  chapter  held  in  the 
presence  of  this  cardinal  took  place  on  May  29,  1216. 
By  an  error  very  common  in  history,  most  of  the  Fran- 
ciscan writers  have  referred  to  a  single  date  all  the 
scattered  incidents  concerning  the  first  solemn  assizes 
of  the  Order,  and  have  called  this  typical  assembly 
the  Chapter  of  the  Mats.  In  reality  for  long  years  all 
the  gatherings  of  the  Brothers  Minor  deserved  this 
name.3 

Coming  together  at  the  season  of  the  greatest  heat,  they 
slept  in  the  open  air  or  sheltered  themselves  under  booths 
of  reeds.  "We  need  not  pity  them.  There  is  nothing  like 
the  glorious  transparency  of  the  summer  night  in  Umbria  ; 
sometimes  in  Provence  one  may  enjoy  a  foretaste  of  it, 
but  if  at  Baux,  upon  the  rock  of  Doins,  or  at  St. 

1  3  Soc,  61  ;  cf.  An.  Perm.,  A.  SS.,  p.  606f. 

2  Thomas  of  Celano  must  be  in  error  when  he  declares  that  Francis  was 
not  acquainted  with  Cardinal  Ugolini  before  the  visit  which  he  made 
him  at  Florence  (summer  of  1217)  :  Nondum  alter  alteri  erat  prœcipun 
familiaritate  eonjunctus  (1  Cel.,  74  and  75).  The  Franciscan  biogra- 
pher's purpose  was  not  historic  ;  chronological  indications  are  given  in 
profusion  ;  what  he  seeks  is  the  a/pta  junctura.  Tradition  has  preserved 
the  memory  of  a  chapter  held  at  Portiuncula  in  presence  of  Ugolini 
during  a  stay  of  the  curia  at  Perugia  (Spec,  137b.;  Fior.,  18  ;  Conform., 
207a  ;  3  Soc,  61).  But  the  curia  did  not  come  back  to  Perugia  between 
1216  and  Francis's  death.  It  is  also  to  be  noted  that  according  to  An- 
gelo  Clareno,  Ugolini  was  with  Francis  in  1210,  supporting  him  in  the 
presence  of  Innocent  III.  Vide  below,  p.  413.  Finally  the  bull  Saci^o- 
sancta  of  December  9,  1219,  witnesses  that  already  during  his  legation 
in  Florence  (1217)  Ugolini  was  actually  interesting  himself  for  the 
Clarisses. 

3  See,  for  example,  the  description  of  the  chapter  of  1221  by  Brother 
Giordano.    Giord.,  10. 


202 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Baume,  the  sight  is  equally  solemn  and  grandiose,  it  still 
wants  the  caressing  sweetness,  the  effluence  of  life  which 
in  Umbria  give  the  night  a  bewitching  charm. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  neighboring  towns  and  villages 
flocked  to  these  meetings  in  crowds,  at  once  to  see  the 
ceremonies,  to  be  present  when  their  relatives  or  friends 
assumed  the  habit,  to  listen  to  the  appeals  of  the  Saint 
and  to  furnish  to  the  friars  the  provisions  of  which  they 
might  have  need.  All  this  is  not  without  some  analogy 
with  the  camp-meeting  so  dear  to  Americans.  As  to  the 
figures  of  several  thousands  of  attendants  given  in  the 
legends,  and  furnishing  even  to  a  Franciscan,  Father 
Papini,  the  occasion  for  pleasantries  of  doubtful  taste,  it 
is  perhaps  not  so  surprising  as  might  be  supposed.1 

These  first  meetings,  to  which  all  the  Brothers  eagerly 
hastened,  held  in  the  open  air  in  the  presence  of  crowds 
come  together  from  distant  places,  have  then  nothing  in 
common  with  the  subsequent  chapters  -  general,  which 
were  veritable  conclaves  attended  by  a  small  imbiber  of 
-delegates,  and  the  majority  of  the  work  of  which,  done  in 
secret,  was  concerned  only  with  the  affairs  of  the  Order. 

During  Francis's  lifetime  the  purpose  of  these  assem- 
blies was  essentially  religious.    Men  attended  them  not 

1  With  regard  to  the  figure  of  five  thousand  attendants  given  by  Bona- 
ventura(Bon.,  59)  Father  Papini  writes  :  To  non  credo  staio  capace  alcuno 
di  dare  ad  intendere  al  8.  Dottore  simil  fanfaluca,  ne  capace  lui  di 
crederla. 

.  .  .  In  somma  il  numéro  quinque  millia  et  ultra  non  è  del  Santo, 
incapace  di  scrkere  unacosa  tanto  improbabile  e  relatkamente  impossibile. 
Storia  di  S.  Fr.,  i.,  pp.  181  and  183.  This  figure,  five  thousand,  is  also 
indicated  by  Eccl.,  6.  All  this  may  be  explained  and  become  possible 
by  admitting  the  presence  of  the  Brothers  of  Penitence,  and  it  seems 
very  difficult  to  contest  it,  since  in  the  Order  of  the  Humiliants,  which 
much  resembles  that  of  the  Brothers  Minor  (equally  composed  of  three 
branches  approved  by  three  bulls  given  June,  1201),  the  cbapters-gen- 
eral  annually  held  were  frequented  by  the  brothers  of  the  three  Orders. 
Tirabosclii,  t.  ii.,  p.  144.    Cf.  above,  p.  158. 


THE  CHAPTER-GENERAL  OF  1217 


203 


to  talk  business,  or  proceed  to  the  nomination  of  the 
minister- general,  but  in  mutual  communion  to  gain  new 
strength  from  the  joys,  the  example,  and  the  sufferings  of 
the  other  brethren.1 

The  four  years  which  followed  the  Whitsunday  of  1216 
form  a  stage  in  the  evolution  of  the  Umbrian  movement  ; 
that  during  which  Francis  was  battling  for  autonomy. 
We  find  here  pretty  delicate  shades  of  distinction,  which 
have  been  misunderstood  by  Church  writers  as  much  as 
by  their  adversaries,  for  if  Francis  was  particular  not  to 
put  himself  in  the  attitude  of  revolt,  he  would  not  com- 
promise his  independence,  and  he  felt  with  an  exquisite 
divination  that  all  the  privileges  which  the  court  of  Rome 
could  heap  upon  him  were  worth  notnxng  in  comparison 
with  liberty.  Alas,  he  was  soon  forced  to  resign  himself 
to  these  gilded  bonds,  against  which  he  never  ceased  to 
protest,  even  to  his  last  sigh  ; 2  but  to  shut  one's  eyes  to 
the  moral  violence  which  the  papacy  did  him  in  this  mat- 
ter is  to  condemn  oneself  to  an  entire  misapprehension 
of  his  work. 

A  glance  over  the  collection  of  bulls  addressed  to  the 
Franciscans  suffices  to  show  with  what  ardor  he  strug- 
gled against  favors  so  eagerly  sought  by  the  monastic 
orders.3 

;  Vide  2  Cel.,  3,  121  ;  Spec,  42b;  12Tb. 

2  Prœcipio  firmiter  per  obedientiam  fratribus  universis  quod  ubicunque 
sunt-,  non  audeant peter e  aliquam  litteram  in  Curia  Romana.  Test.  B. 
Fr.  ' 

3  A  comparison  with  the  Bullary  of  the  Preaching  Friars  is  especially 
instructive  :  from  their  first  chapter  at  Xotre  Dame  de  Prouille,  in  1216, 
they  are  abont  fifteen  ;  we  find  there  at  this  time  absolutely  nothing 
that  can  be  compared  to  the  Franciscan  movement,  which  was  already 
stirring  up  all  Italy.  But  while  the  first  bull  in  favor  of  the  Francis- 
cans bears  the  date  of  June  11,  1219,  and  the  approbation  properly  so 
called  that  of  November  29.  1223,  we  find  Honorius  already  in  the 
end  of  1216  lavishing  marks  of  affection  upon  the  Dominicans  ;  Decem- 
ber 22,  1216,  licligiosarn  vitam.    Cf.  Pressuti,  /  regesti,  del  Ponifficc 


204 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


A  great  number  of  legendary  anecdotes  put  Francis's 
disdain  of  privileges  in  the  clearest  light.  Even  his  dear- 
est friends  did  not  always  understand  his  scruples. 

"  Do  you  not  see,"  they  said  to  him  one  day,  "  that  often  the  bishops 
do  not  permit  us  to  preach,  and  make  us  remain  several  days  without 
doing  anything  before  we  are  permitted  to  proclaim  the  word  of  God  ? 
It  would  be  better  worth  while  to  obtain  for  this  end  a.  privilege  from 
the  pope,  and  it  would  be  for  the  good  of  souls." 

"  I  would  first  convert  the  prelates  by  humility  and  respect,"  he  re- 
plied quickly  ;  '  '  for  when  they  have  seen  us  humble  and  respectful 
toward  them,  they  tbemselves  will  beg  us  to  preach  and  convert  the 
people.  As  for  me,  I  ask  of  God  no  privilege  unless  it  be  that  I  may 
have  none,  to  be  full  of  respect  for  all  men,  and  to  convert  them,  as  our 
Rule  ordains,  more  by  our  example  than  by  our  speech."  ] 

The  question  whether  Francis  was  right  or  wrong  in 
his  antipathy  to  the  privileges  of  the  curia  does  not  come 
within  the  domain  of  history  ;  it  is  evident  that  this  at- 
titude could  not  long  continue  ;  the  Church  knows  only 
the  faithful  and  rebels.  But  the  noblest  hearts  often 
make  a  stand  at  compromises  of  this  kind  ;  they  desire 
that  the  future  should  grow  out  of  the  past  without  con- 
vulsion and  without  a  crisis. 

The  chapter  of  1217  was  notable  for  the  definitive  or- 
ganization of  the  Franciscan  missions.  Italy  and  the 
other  countries  were  divided  off  into  a  certain  number  of 
provinces,  having  each  its  provincial  minister.  Imme- 

Onorio  IIL,  Roma,  18S4,  t.  i. ,  no.  175;  same  date:  Nos  ottendentes, 
ibid.,  no.  176  ;  January  21,  1217,  graiiarum  omnium,  ib.,  no.  243.  Vide 
284,  1039,  1156,  1208.  It  is  needless  to  continue  this  enumeration. 
Very  much  the  same  could  be  done  for  the  other  Orders  ;  whence  the 
conclusion  that  if  the  Brothers  Minor  alone  are  forgotten  in  this  shower 
of  favors,  it  is  because  they  decidedly  wished  to  be.  It  must  be  ad- 
mitted that  immediately  upon  Francis's  death  they  made  up  for  lost 
time. 

1  The  authenticity  of  this  passage  is  put  beyond  doubt  by  Ubertino 
di  CasaVs  citation.  Archie.,  iii.,  p.  53.  Cf.  Spec,  30a;  Conform., 
111b,  1  ;  118b,  1  ;  Ubertino,  Arbor  vitœ  crue,  iii.,  3. 


THE  CHAPTER-GEXERAL  OF  1217 


205 


diately  upon  his  accession  Honorius  III.  had  sought  to 
revive  the  popular  zeal  for  the  crusades.  He  had  not 
stopped  at  preaching  it,  but  appealed  to  prophecies  which 
had  proclaimed  that  under  his  pontificate  the  Holy  Land 
would  be  reconquered.1  The  renewal  of  fervor  which 
ensued,  and  of  which  the  rebound  was  felt  as  far  as 
Germany,  had  a  profound  influence  on  the  Brothers 
Minor.  This  time  Francis,  perhaps  from  humility,  did 
not  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  friars  charged  with  a 
mission  to  Syria  ;  for  leader  he  gave  them  the  famous 
Elias,  formerly  at  Florence,  where  he  had  had  opportu- 
nity to  show  his  high  qualities.2 

This  Brother,  who  from  this  time  appears  in  the  fore- 
ground of  this  history,  came  from  the  most  humble  ranks 
of  society  ;  the  date  and  the  circumstances  of  his  entrance 
into  the  Order  are  unknown,  and  hence  conjecture  has 
come  to  see  in  him  that  friend  of  the  grotto  who  had 
been  Francis's  confidant  shortly  before  his  decisive  con- 
version. However  this  may  be,  in  his  youth  he  had 
earned  his  living  in  Assisi,  making  mattresses  and  teach- 
ing a  few  children  to  read  ;  then  he  had  spent  some  time 
in  Bologna  as  scriptor;  then  suddenly  we  find  him  among 
the  Brothers  Minor,  charged  with  the  most  difficult  mis- 
sions. 

His  adversaries  vie  with  one  another  in  asserting  that 
he  was  the  finest  mind  of  his  century,  but  unhappily  it 
is  very  difficult,  in  the  existing  state  of  the  documents, 
to  pronounce  as  to  his  actions  ;  learned  and  energetic, 
eager  to  play  the  leading  part  in  the  work  of  the  refor- 

1  Burcliardi  clironicon  ann.  1217,  loc.  cit. ,  p.  377.  See  also  the  bulls 
indicated  by  Potthast,  5575,  5585-92. 

2  Before  1217  the  office  of  minister  virtually  existed,  though  its  defin- 
itive institution  dates  only  from  1217.  Brother  Bernardo  in  his  mis- 
sion to  Bologna,  for  example  (1212  ?),  certainly  held  in  some  sort  the 
office  of  minister. 


206 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


mation  of  religion,  and  having  made  his  plan  beforehand 
as  to  the  proper  mode  of  realizing  it,  he  made  straight 
for  his  goal,  half  political,  half  religious.  Full  of  admi- 
ration for  Francis  and  gratitude  toward  him,  he  desired 
to  regulate  and  consolidate  the  movement  for  renovation. 
In  the  inner  Franciscan  circle,  where  Leo,  Ginepro, 
Egidio,  and  many  others  represent  the  spirit  of  liberty, 
the  religion  of  the  humble  and  the  simple,  Elias  rep- 
resents the  scientific  and  ecclesiastical  spirit,  prudence 
and  reason. 

He  had  great  success  in  Syria  and  received  into  the 
Order  one  of  the  disciples  most  dear  to  Francis,  Cœsar 
of  Speyer,  who  later  on  was  to  make  the  conquest  of  all 
Southern  Germany  in  less  than  two  years  (1221-1223), 
and  who  in  the  end  sealed  with  his  blood  his  fidelity  to 
the  strict  observance,  which  he  defended  against  the  at- 
tacks of  Brother  Elias  himself.1 

Caasar  of  Speyer  offers  a  brilliant  example  of  those 
suffering  souls  athirst  for  the  ideal,  so  numerous  in  the 
thirteenth  century,  who  everywhere  went  up  and  down, 
seeking  first  in  learning,  then  in  the  religious  life,  that 
which  should  assuage  the  mysterious  thirst  which  tort- 
ured them.  Disciple  of  the  scholastic  Conrad,  he  had 
felt  himself  overpowered  with  the  desire  to  reform  the 
Church  ;  while  still  a  layman  he  had  preached  his  ideas, 
not  without  some  success,  since  a  certain  number  of 
ladies  of  Speyer  had  begun  to  lead  a  new  life  ;  but  their 
husbands  disapproving,  he  was  obliged  to  escape  their 
vengeance  by  taking  refuge  at  Paris,  and  thence  he  went 
to  the  East,  where  in  the  preaching  of  the  Brothers 
Minor  he  found  again  his  hopes  and  his  dreams.  This 
instance  shows  how  general  was  the  waiting  condition  of 

1  Imprisoned  by  order  of  Elias,  be  died  in  consequence  of  blows  given 
him  one  day  when  he  was  taking  the  air  outside  of  his  prison.  Tribul., 
24a. 


THE  CHAPTER-GENERAL  OF  1217 


207 


souls  when  the  Franciscan  gospel  blazed  forth,  and  how 
its  way  had  been  everywhere  prepared. 

But  it  is  time  to  return  to  the  chapter  of  1217  :  the 
friars  who  went  to  Germany  under  conduct  of  Giovanni  di 
Penna  were  far  from  having  the  success  of  Elias  and  his 
companions  ;  they  were  completely  ignorant  of  the  lan- 
guage of  the  country  which  they  had  undertaken  to  evan- 
gelize. Perhaps  Francis  had  not  taken  into  account  the 
fact  that  though  Italian  might,  in  case  of  need,  suffice  in 
all  the  countries  bathed  by  the  Mediterranean,  this  could 
not  be  the  case  in  Central  Europe.1 

The  lot  of  the  party  going  to  Hungary  was  not  more 
happy.  Very  often  it  came  to  pass  that  the  missionaries 
were  fain  to  give  up  their  very  garments  in  the  effort 
to  appease  the  peasants  and  shepherds  who  maltreated 
them.  But  no  less  incapable  of  understanding  what  was 
said  to  them  than  of  making  themselves  understood,  they 
were  soon  obliged  to  think  of  returning  to  Italy.  We 
may  thank  the  Franciscan  authors  for  preserving  for  us 
the  memory  of  these  checks,  and  not  attempting  to  pict- 
ure the  friars  as  suddenly  knowing  all  languages  by  a 
divine  inspiration,  as  later  on  was  so  often  related.2 

Those  who  had  been  sent  to  Spain  had  also  to  under- 
go persecutions.  This  country,  like  the  south  of  France, 
was  ravaged  by  heresy  ;  but  already  at  that  time  it  was 
vigorously  repressed.  The  Franciscans,  suspected  of 
being  false  Catholics  and  therefore  eagerly  hunted  out, 
found  a  refuge  with  Queen  Urraca  of  Portugal,  who  per- 
mitted them  to  establish  themselves  at  Coimbra,  Guimar- 
raens,  Alenquero,  and  Lisbon.3 

1  Giord.,  5  and  6  ;  3  Soc,  62. 

2  Of  Giovanni  di  Parma,  Clareno,  Anthony  of  Padua,  etc. 

sMark  of  Lisbon,  t.  i.,  p.  82.  Cf.  p.  79,  t.  ii.,  p.  86,  Glassberger, 
ann.  1217.  An.fr.,  ii.,  pp.  9  ff.;  Chron  xxiv.  gen.,  MS.  of  Assisi,  no. 
328,  f°  2b. 


208 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Francis  himself  made  preparations  for  going  to  France.1 
This  country  had  a  peculiar  charm  for  him  because  of 
his  fervent  love  of  the  Holy  Sacrament.  Perhaps  also 
he  was  unwittingly  drawn  toward  this  country  to  whick 
he  owed  his  name,  the  chivalrous  dreams  of  his  youth,  all 
of  poetry,  song,  music,  delicious  dream  that  had  come 
into  his  life. 

Something  of  the  emotion  that  thrilled  through  him  on 
undertaking  this  new  mission  has  passed  into  the  story 
of  his  biographers  ;  one  feels  there  the  thrill  at  once 
sweet  and  agonizing,  the  heart-throb  of  the  brave  knight 
who  goes  forth  all  harnessed  in  the  early  dawn  to  scan 
the  horizon,  dreading  the  unknown  and  yet  overflowing 
with  joy,  for  he  knows  that  the  day  will  be  consecrated 
to  love  and  to  the  right. 

The  Italian  poet  has  given  the  one  name  of  "  pilgrim- 
ages of  love  "  to  the  farings  forth  of  chivalry  and  the 
journeys  undertaken  by  dreamers,  artists,  or  saints  to 
those  parts  of  the  earth  which  forever  mirror  themselves 
before  their  imagination  and  remain  their  chosen  father- 
land.2 Such  a  pilgrimage  as  this  was  Francis  undertak- 
ing. 

"  Set  forth,"  said  he  to  the  Brothers  who  accompanied  him,  "and 
walk  two  and  two,  humble  and  gentle,  keeping  silence  until  after  tierce, 
praying  to  God  in  vour  hearts,  carefully  avoiding  every  vain  or  useless 
word.  Meditate  as  much  while  on  this  journey  as  if  you  were  shut  up 
in  a  hermitage  or  in  your  cell,  for  wherever  we  are,  wherever  we  go, 
we  carry  our  cell  with  us  ;  Brother  body  is  our  cell,  and  the  soul  is  the 
hermit  who  dwells  in  it,  there  to  pray  to  the  Lord  and  to  meditate." 

Arrived  at  Florence  he  found  there  Cardinal  Ugolini, 
sent  by  the  pope  as  legate  to  Tuscany  to  preach  the 
crusade  and  take  all  needful  measures  for  assuring  its 

1  Spec,  44a.  ;  Conform.,  119a,  2  ;  13oa;  181b,  1  ;  1  Cel  ,  74  and  75. 

2  2  Cel.,  3,  129.    Diligebat  Franciam    .    .    .    tolebat  in  ea  mori. 


THE  CHAPTER-GENERAL  OF  1217  209 


success.1  Francis  was  surely  far  from  expecting  the 
reception  which  the  prelate  gave  him.  Instead  of  en- 
couraging him,  the  cardinal  urged  him  to  give  up  his 
project. 

"  I  am  not  willing,  rny  brother,  that  you.  should  cross  the  mountains; 
there  are  many  prelates  who  ask  nothing  better  than  to  stir  up  diffi- 
culties for  you  with  the  court  of  Rome,  But  I  and  the  other  cardinals 
who  love  your  Order  desire  to  protect  and  aid  you,  on  the  condition, 
however,  that  you  do  not  quit  this  province.'' 

"But,  monsignor,  it  would  be  a  great  disgrace  for  me  to  send  my 
brethren  far  away  while  I  remained  idly  here,  sharing  none  of  the 
tribulations  which  they  must  undergo/' 

"Wherefore,  then,  have  you  sent  your  brethren  so  far  away,  expos- 
ing them  thus  to  starvation  and  all  sorts  of  perils  ?  " 

"  Do  you  think,"  replied  Francis  warmly,  and  as  if  moved  by  pro- 
phetic inspiration.  u  that  God  raised  up  the  Brothers  for  the  sake  of 
this  country  alone  ?  Verily.  I  say  unto  you.  God  has  raised  them  up 
for  the  awakening  and  the  salvation  of  ail  men.  and  they  shall  win 
souls  not  only  in  the  countries  of  those  who  believe,  but  also  in  the 
very  midst  of  the  infidels."  2 

The  surprise  and  admiration  which  these  words  awoke 
in  Ugolini  were  not  enough  to  make  him  change  his 
mind.  He  insisted  so  strongly  that  Francis  turned  back 
to  Porfâuncula,  the  inspiration  of  his  work  not  even 
shaken.  Who  knows  whether  the  joy  which  he  would 
have  felt  in  seeing  France  did  not  confirm  him  in  the 
idea-  that  he  ought  to  renounce  this  plan  ?  Souls  athirst 
with  the  longing  for  sacrifice  often  have  scruples  such  as 
these  ;  they  refuse  the  most  lawful  joys  that  they  may 
offer  them  to  God. 

1  V.  bull  of  January  23,  1217,  Tempus  acceptabile,  Potthast,  no.  5430, 
given  in  Horoy,  t.  ii  ,  col.  205  ff.  ;  cf.  Pressuti,  i.,  p.  71.  This  bull  and 
those  following  fix  without  question  the  time  of  the  journey  to  Flor- 
ence.   Potthast,  5488,  5487,  and  page  495. 

2  It  is  superfluous  to  point  out  the  error  of  the  Bollandist  text  in 
the  phrase  Montât  (Cardino.lis  Wraneiscum)  cœptum  non  perficere  iter, 
where  the  non  is  omitted.  A.  SS..  p.  704.  Cf.,  p.  607  and  835.  which 
has  led  Suysken  into  several  other  errors. 

14 


210 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


We  cannot  tell  whether  it  was  immediately  after  this 
interview  or  not  till  the  following  year  that  Francis  put 
Brother  Pacifico  at  the  head  of  the  missionaries  sent  into 
France.1 

Pacifico,  who  was  a  poet  of  talent,  had  before  his  con- 
version been  surnamed  Prince  of  Poesy  and  crowned  at 
the  capital  by  the  emperor.  One  day  while  visiting  a  rel- 
ative who  was  a  mm  at  San  Severino  in  the  March  of  An- 
cona,  Francis  also  arrived  at  the  monastery,  and  preached 
with  such  a  holy  impetuosity  that  the  poet  felt  himself 
pierced  with  the  sword  of  which  the  Bible  speaks,  which 
penetrates  between  the  very  joints  and  marrow,  and  dis- 
cerns the  thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart.2  On  the 
morrow  lie  assumed  the  habit  and  received  his  symboli- 
cal surname.3 

He  was  accompanied  to  France  by  Brother  Agnello  di 
Pisa,  who  was  destined  to  be  put  at  the  head  of  the  first 
mission  to  England  in  12244 

Francis,  on  sending  them  forth,  was  far  from  dreaming 
that  from  this  country,  which  exerted  such  a  fascination 
over  him,  was  to  come  forth  the  influence  which  was  to 
compromise  his  dream — that  Paris  would  be  the  destruc- 
tion of  Assisi  ;  and  yet  the  time  Avas  not  very  far  distant  ; 

1  Bon.,  51.    Cf.  Glassberger,  ami.  1217  ;  Spec,  45b. 

2  Heb.,  iv.,  12  ;  2  Cel.,  3,  49  ;  Bon.,  50  and  51. 

3  Brother  Pacifico  interests  us  [the  French  people]  particularly  as  the 
first  minister  of  the  Order  in  France  ;  information  about  him  is  abun- 
dant :  Bon,,  79  ;  2  Cel.,  3,  63  ;  Spec, 41b.;  Conform. ,  38a.  1  ;  43a,  1  ;  71b; 
173b,  1,  and  176  ;  2  Cel.,  8,  27  ;  Spec,  38b  ;  Conform.,  181b  ;  2  Cel.,  3, 
76  ;  Fior. ,  46  ;  Conform.,  70a.  I  do  not  indicate  the  general  references 
found  in  Chevalier's  Bibliography.  The  Miscellanea,  t.  ii.  (1887),  p. 
158,  contains  a  most  precise  and  interesting  column  about  him.  Gregory 
IX.  speaks  of  him  in  the  bull  Magna  sicut  dicitvr  of  August  12,  1227. 
Sbaralea,  Bull.  fr. ,  i. ,  p.  33  (Potthast,  8007).  Thomas  of  Tuscany,  socnis 
of  St.  Bonaventura,  knew  him  and  speaks  of  him  in  his  Gesta  Impcra- 
torum  (Mon.  germ.  hist,  script.,  t.  22,  p.  492). 

4  Eccl.,  1  ;  Conform,,  113b.  1. 


THE  CHAPTER-GENERAL  OF  1217 


211 


a  few  years  more  and  the  Poverello  would  see  a  part 
of  his  spiritual  family  forgetting  the  humility  of  their 
name,  their  origin,  and  their  aspirations,  to  ran  after  the 
ephemeral  laurels  of  learning. 

We  have  already  seen  that  the  habit  of  the  Franciscans 
of  this  time  was  to  make  their  abode  within  easy  reach 
of  great  cities  ;  Pacifico  and  his  companions  established 
themselves  at  St.  Denis.1  "We  have  no  particulars  of  their 
work  ;  it  was  singularly  fruitful,  since  it  permitted  them 
a  few  years  later  to  attack  England  with  full  success. 

Francis  passed  the  following  year  (1218)  in  evangeliz- 
ing tours  in  Italy.  It  is  naturally  impossible  to  follow 
him  in  these  travels,  the  itinerary  of  which  was  fixed  by 
his  daily  inspirations,  or  by  indications  as  fanciful  as  the 
one  which  had  formerly  determined  his  going  to  Sienna. 
Bologna,2  the  Yerna,  the  valley  of  Bieti,  the  Sacro-Speco  of 
St.  Benedict  at  Subiaco,3  Gaeta  ; 4  San  Michèle  on  Mount 
Gargano 5  perhaps  received  him  at  this  time,  but  the  notes 

1  Toward  1224  the  Brothers  Minor  desired  to  draw  nearer  and  build 
a  vast  convent  near  the  walls  of  Paris  in  the  grounds  called  Vauvert,  or 
Valvert  (now  the  Luxembourg  Garden),  (Eccl.,  10;  cf.  Top.  hist,  da 
vieux  Paris,  by  Berty  and  Tisserand,  t.  iv.,  p.  70).  In  1230  they  re- 
ceived at  Paris  from  the  Benedictines  of  Saint-Gerniain-des-Prés  a 
certain  number  of  houses  in  parocchia  SS.  Cosmœ  et  Damiani  infra 
muros  domini  regis prope portarn  de  Gibardo  {Chartidarium  Universitatis 
Parisiensis,  no.  76.  Cf.  Topographie  historique  du  vieux  Paris  ;  Région 
occid.  de  Punir.,  p.  95  ;  Félibien,  Histoire  de  la  ville  de  Paris,  i.,  p.  115). 
Finally,  St.  Louis  installed  them  in  the  celebrated  Convent  of  the  Cor- 
deliers, the  refectory  of  which  still  exists,  transformed  into  the  Dupuy- 
tren  Museum.  The  Dominicans,  who  arrived  in  Paris  September  12, 
1217,  went  straight  to  the  centre  of  the  city,  near  the  bishop's  palace  on 
the  lie  de  la  Cité,  and  on  August  6,  1218,  were  installed  in  the  Con- 
vent of  St.  Jacques. 

2  Fior.,  27  ;  Spec.,  14Sb  ;  Conform.,  71a  and  113a,  2  ;  Bon.,  182. 

3  The  traces  of  Francis's  visit  here  are  numerous.  A  Brother  Eudes 
painted  his  portrait  here. 

4  Bon.,  177. 

"  Vide  A.  SS. ,  pp.  855  and  856.    Cf.  2  Cel.,  3,  136. 


212 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


of  his  presence  in  these  places  are  too  sparse  and  vague 
to  permit  their  being  included  in  any  scheme  of  history. 

It  is  very  possible  that  he  also  paid  a  visit  to  Kome 
during  this  time  ;  his  communications  with  Ugolini  were 
much  more  frequent  than  is  generally  supposed.  We 
must  not  permit  the  stories  of  biographers  to  deceive  us 
in  this  matter  ;  it  is  a  natural  tendency  to  refer  all  that 
we  know  of  a  man  to  three  or  four  especially  striking 
dates.  We  forget  entire  years  of  the  life  of  those  whom 
we  have  known  the  best  and  loved  the  most  and  group 
our  memories  of  them  around  a  few  salient  events  which 
shine  all  the  more  brilliantly  the  deeper  we  make  the 
surrounding  obscurity.  The  words  of  Jesus  spoken  on  a 
hundred  different  occasions  came  at  last  to  be  formed 
into  a  single  discourse,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  It  is 
in  such  cases  that  criticism  needs  to  be  delicate,  to 
mingle  a  little  divination  with  the  heavy  artillery  of 
scientific  argument. 

The  texts  are  sacred,  but  we  must  not  make  fetiches  of 
them  ;  notwithstanding  St.  Matthew,  no  one  to  -  day 
dreams  of  representing  Jesus  as  uttering  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  all  at  one  time.  In  the  same  way,  in  the  nar- 
ratives concerning  the  relations  between  St.  Francis  and 
Ugolini,  "we  find  ourselves  every  moment  shut  up  in  no- 
Hlittroughfares,  coming  up  against  contradictory  indica- 
tions, just  so  long  as  we  try  to  refer  everything  to  two  or 
three  meetings,  as  we  are  at  first  led  to  do. 

With  a  simple  act  of  analysis  these  difficulties  disap- 
pear and  we  find  each  of  the  different  narratives  bringing 
us  fragments  which,  being  pieced  together,  furnish  an  or- 
ganic story,  living,  psychologically  true. 

From  the  moment  at  which  we  have  now  arrived,  we 
must  make  a  much  larger  place  for  Ugolini  than  in  the 
past;  the  struggle  has  definitively  opened  between  the 
Franciscan  ideal — chimerical,  perhaps,  but  sublime — and 


THE  CHAPTER-GENERAL  OF  1217 


213 


the  ecclesiastical  policy,  to  go  on  until  the  clay  when,  half 
in  humility,  half  in  discouragement,  Francis,  heartsick, 
abdicates  the  direction  of  his  spiritual  family. 

Ugolini  returned  to  Rome  at  the  end  of  1217.  During 
the  following  winter  his  countersign  is  found  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  most  important  bulls  ; 1  he  devoted  this  time 
to  the  special  study  of  the  question  of  the  new  orders, 
and  summoned  Francis  before  him.  We  have  seen  with 
what  frankness  he  had  declared  to  him  at  Florence  that 
many  of  the  prelates  would  do  anything  to  discredit  him 
with  the  pope.2  It  is  evident  the  success  of  the  Order,  its 
methods,  which  in  spite  of  all  protestations  to  the  con- 
trary seemed  to  savor  of  heresy,  the  independence  of 
Francis,  who  had  scattered  his  friars  in  all  the  four 
corners  of  the  globe  without  trying  to  gain  a  confirma- 
tion of  the  verbal  and  entirely  provisional  authorization 
accorded  him  by  Innocent  III. — all  these  things  were  cal- 
culated to  startle  the  clergy. 

Ugolini,  who  better  than  any  one  else  knew  Umbria, 
Tuscany,  Emilia,  the  March  of  Ancona,  all  those  regions 
where  the  Franciscan  preaching  had  been  most  success- 
ful, was  able  by  himself  to  judge  of  the  power  of  the  new 
movement  and  the  imperious  necessity  of  directing  it  ;  he 
felt  that  the  best  way  to  allay  the  prejudices  which  the 
pope  and  the  sacred  college  might  have  against  Francis 
was  to  present  him  before  the  curia. 

Francis  was  at  first  much  abashed  at  the  thought  of 
preaching  before  the  Yicar  of  Jesus  Christ,  but  upon  the 
entreaties  of  his  protector  he  consented,  and  for  greater 
security  he  learned  by  heart  what  he  had  to  say. 

1  Among  others  those  of  December  o,  1217,  Potthast,  5629  ;  February 
8,  Mardi  30,  April  7,  1218,  Potthast,  5695,  5739.  5747. 

2  1  Cel. ,  74.  0  quanti  maxime  in  principio  cum  hœc  agerentur  notéllœ 
plantations  ordÀrds  imidiabantur  ut  per derent.  Cf.  2  Cel.,  1,16.  Vide- 
bat  Franciscus  luporum  mare  sevire  quamplures. 


214 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Ugolini  himself  was  not  entirely  at  ease  as  to  the 
result  of  this  step  ;  Thomas  of  Celano  pictures  him  as 
devoured  with  anxiety  ;  he  was  troubled  about  Francis, 
whose  artless  eloquence  ran  many  a  risk  in  the  halls  of 
the  Lateran  Palace  ;  he  was  also  not  without  some  more 
personal  anxieties,  for  the  failure  of  his  protégé  might 
be  most  damaging  to  himself.  He  was  in  all  the  greater 
anxiety  when,  on  arriving  at  the  feet  of  the  pontiff,  Fran- 
cis forgot  all  he  had  intended  to  say;  but  he  frankly 
avowed  it,  and  seeking  a  new  discourse  from  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  moment,  spoke  with  so  much  warmth  and 
simplicity  that  the  assembly  was  won.1 

The  biographers  are  mute  as  to  the  practical  result  of 
this  audience.  We  are  not  to  be  surprised  at  this,  for 
they  write  with  the  sole  purpose  of  edification.  They 
wrote  after  the  apotheosis  of  their  master,  and  would 
with  very  bad  grace  have  dwelt  upon  the  difficulties 
which  he  met  during  the  early  years.2 

The  Holy  See  must  have  been  greatly  perplexed  by  this 

1  1  Cel.,  73  (cf.  2  Cel.,  1,  17;  Spec.,  102a);  3  Soc,  64;  Bon.,  78. 
The  fixing  of  this  scene  in  the  winter  of  1217-1218  seems  hardly  to  he 
debatable  ;  Giordano's  account  (14)  in  fact  determines  the  date  at  which 
Ugolini  became  officially  protector  of  the  Order  ;  it  supposes  earlier  rela- 
tions between  Honorius,  Francis,  and  Ugolini.  We  are  therefore  led 
to  seek  a  date  at  which  these  three  personages  may  have  met  in  Rome, 
and  we  arrive  thus  at  the  period  between  December,  1217,  and  April, 
1218. 

2  A  word  of  Brother  Giordano's  opens  the  door  to  certain  conjectures. 
"  My  lord,"  said  Francis  to  Honorius  III.,  in  1220,  "  you  have  given  me 
many  fathers  (popes)  give  me  a  single  one  to  whom  I  may  turn  with 
the  affairs  of  my  Order."  (Giord.,  14,  Multos  mild  papas  dedisti  da 
urium,    .    .    .  etc.) 

Does  not  this  suggest  the  idea  that  the  pontiff  had  perhaps  named  a 
commission  of  cardinals  to  oversee  the  Brothers  Minor  ?  Its  delibera- 
tions and  the  events  to  be  related  in  the  following  chapter  might  have 
impelled  him  to  issue  the  bull  Cum  dilecti  of  June  11,  1219,  which  was 
not  an  approbation  properly  so  called,  but  a  safe-conduct  in  favor  of  the 
Franciscans. 


THE  CHAPTER-GENERAL  OF  1217 


215 


strange  man,  whose  faith  and  humility  were  evident,  but 
whom  it  was  impossible  to  teach  ecclesiastical  obedience. 

St.  Dominic  happened  to  be  in  Eome  at  the  same 
time,1  and  was  overwhelmed  with  favors  by  the  pope.  It 
is  a  matter  of  history  that  Innocent  III.  having  asked 
him  to  choose  one  of  the  Rules  already  approved  by  the 
Church,  he  had  returned  to  his  friars  at  Notre  Dame  de 
Prouille,  and  after  conferring  with  them  had  adopted  that 
of  St.  Augustine  ;  Honorius  therefore  was  not  sparing  of 
privileges  for  him.  It  is  hardly  possible  that  Ugolini 
did  not  try  to  use  the  influence  of  his  example  with  St. 
Francis. 

The  curia  saw  clearly  that  Dominic,  whose  Order  barely 
comprised  a  few  dozen  members,  was  not  one  of  the 
moral  powers  of  the  time,  but  its  sentiments  toward  him 
were  by  no  means  so  mixed  as  those  it  experienced  with 
regard  to  Francis. 

To  unite  the  two  Orders,  to  throw  over  the  shoulders 
of  the  Dominicans  the  brown  cassock  of  the  Poor  Men 
of  Assisi,  and  thus  make  a  little  of  the  popularity  of  the 
Brothers  Minor  to  be  reflected  upon  them,  to  leave  to 
the  latter  their  name,  their  habit,  and  even  a  semblance 
of  their  Rule,  only  completing  it  with  that  of  St.  Augustine, 
such  a  project  would  have  been,  singularly  pleasing  to 
Ugolini,  and  with  Francises  humility  would  seem  to  have 
some  chance  of  success. 

One  day  Dominic  by  dint  of  pious  insistance  induced 
Francis  to  give  him  his  cord,  and  immediately  girded 
himself  with  it.  "  Brother,"  said  he,  "  I  earnestly  long 
that  your  Order  and  mine  might  unite  to  form  one  sole 
and  same  institute  2  in  the  Church."    But  the  Brother 

1  He  took  possession  of  St.  Sabine  on  February  28,  1218. 

2  2  Cel.,  8,  87.  The  literal  meaning  of  the  phrase  is  somewhat  am- 
biguous. The  text  is  :  Yellem,  frater  Francisée,  unam  fieri  reliyionem 
tuam  et  meamet  in  Ecclesia  pari  forma  nos  mvere.    Spec.  2Tb.    The  echo 


210 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Minor  wished  to  remain  as  he  was,  and  declined  the 
proposition.  So  truly  was  he  inspired  with  the  needs  of 
his  time  and  of  the  Church  that  less  than  three  years 
after  this  Dominic  was  drawn  by  an  irresistible  influence 
to  transform  his  Order  of  Canons  of  St.  Augustine  into 
an  order  of  mendicant  monks,  whose  constitutions  were 
outlined  upon  those  of  the  Franciscans.1 

A  few  years  later  the  Dominicans  took,  so  to  speajv, 
their  revenge,  and  obliged  the  Brothers  Minor  to  give 
learning  a  large  place  in  their  work.  Thus,  while  hardly 
come  to  youth's  estate,  the  two  religious  families  rivalled 
one  another,  impressed,  influenced  one  another,  yet  never 
so  much  so  as  to  lose  all  traces  of  their  origin — summed 
up  for  the  one  in  poverty  and  lay  preaching,  for  the 
other  in  learning  and  the  preaching  of  the  clergy. 

of  this  attempt  is  found  in  Thierry  d'Apolda,  Vie  de  S.  Bomirdque  (A.  SS. , 
Augusti,  t.  i.,  p.  572  d)  :  S.  Bominicus  in  oscula  sancta  mens  et  sinceros 
amplexus,  dixit:  Tu  es  socius  meus,  tu  curves  pariter  mecum,  stemus 
simul,  nullus  adversarhis  prœvalebit.  Bernard  of  Besse  says  :  B.  Domi- 
nicus tanta  B.  Francisco  derotione  cohesit  ut  optatam  ab  eo  cordam  sub 
inferiors  tunica  devotissimi  cingcret,  cujus  et  suam  Religionem  unam  velle 
fieri  dicei-et,  ipsumquepro  sanctitate  cœteris  sequendem  religiosis  assereret. 
Turin  MS.,  102b. 

1  At  the  chapter  held  at  Bologna  at  Whitsunday,  1220.  The  bull 
Beligiosam  vitam  (Privilege  of  Notre  Dame  de  Prouille)  of  March  30, 
1218,  enumerates  the  possessions  of  the  Dominicans.  Ripolli,  BuU. 
Prœd.,  t.  i.,  p.  6.    Horoy,  Honor ii opera,  t.  ii.,  col.  684. 


CHAPTEE  XIII 

ST.  DOMINIC  AND  ST.  FRANCIS 
The  Egyptian  Mission.    Summer  1218— Autumn  1220 

Art  and  poetry  have  clone  well  in  inseparably  asso- 
ciating St.  Dominie  and  St.  Francis  ;  the  glory  of  the  first 
is  only  a  reflection  of  that  of  the  second,  and  it  is  in  plac- 
ing them  side  by  side  that  we  succeed  best  in  understand- 
ing the  genius  of  the  Poverello.  If  Francis  is  the  man 
of  inspiration,  Dominic  is  that  of  obedience  to  orders  ; 
one  may  say  that  his  life  was  passed  on  the  road  to  Rome, 
whither  he  continually  went  to  ask  for  instructions.  His 
legend  was  therefore  very  slow  to  be  formed,  although 
nothing  forbade  it  to  blossom  freely  ;  but  neither  the  zeal 
of  Gregory  IX.  for  his  memory  nor  the  learning  of  his 
disciples  were  able  to  do  for  the  Hammer  of  heretics  that 
which  the  love  of  the  people  did  for  the  Father  of  the 
'poor.  His  legend  has  the  two  defects  which  so  soon 
weary  the  readers  of  hagiographical  writings,  when  the 
question  is  of  the  saints  whose  worship  the  Church  has 
commanded.1    It  is  encumbered  with  a  spurious  super- 

1  One  proof  of  the  obscurity  in  which  Dominic  remained  so  long  as 
Rome  did  not  apotheosize  him,  is  that  Jacques  de  Vitry,  who  consecrates 
a  whole  chapter  of  his  Historia  Occidentalis  to  the  Preaching  Friars 
(27,  p.  333)  does  not  even  name  the  founder.  This  is  the  more  signifi- 
cant since  a  few  pages  farther  on,  the  chapter  given  to  the  Brothers 
Minor  is  almost  entirely  filled  with  the  person  of  St.  Francis.  This 
silence  about  St.  Dominic  has  been  remarked  and  taken  up  by  Moschus, 
who  finds  no  way  to  explain  it.  Tide  Yitam  J,  de  Vitriaco,  at  the  head 
of  the  Douai  edition  of  1597. 


218 


LIFE  0 F  ST.  FRANCIS 


naturalism,  and  with  incidents  borrowed  right  and  left 
from  earlier  legends.  The  Italian  people,  who  hailed  in 
Francis  the  angel  of  all  their  hopes,  and  who  showed 
themselves  so  greedy  for  his  relics,  did  not  so  much  as 
dream  of  taking  up  the  corpse  of  the  founder  of  the  Order 
of  Preaching  Friars,  and  allowed  him  to  wait  twelve  years 
for  the  glories  of  canonization.1 

We  have  already  seen  the  efforts  of  Cardinal  Ugolini  to 
unite  the  two  Orders,  and  the  reasons  he  had  for  this 
course.  He  went  to  the  Whitsunday  chapter-general 
which  met  at  Portiuncula  (June  3,  1218),  to  which  came 
also  St.  Dominic  with  several  of  his  disciples.  The  cere- 
monial of  these  solemnities  appears  to  have  been  always 
about  the  same  since  1216  ;  the  Brothers  Minor  went  in 
procession  to  meet  the  cardinal,  who  immediately  dis- 
mounted from  his  horse  and  lavished  expressions  of  affec- 
tion upon  them.  An  altar  was  set  up  in  the  open  air,  at 
which  he  said  mass,  Francis  performing  the  functions  of 
deacon." 

It  is  easy  to  imagine  the  emotion  which  overcame  those 
present  when  in  its  beautiful  setting  of  the  Umbrian  land- 
scape burst  forth  that  part  of  the  Pentecostal  service,  that 
most  exciting,  the  most  apocalyptic  of  the  whole  Catholic 
liturgy,  the  anthem  Alleluia,  Alleluia,  Emitte  Spiritual 
tuum  et  creabuntur,  et  renovabis  faciem  tervce.  Alléluia? 
does  not  this  include  the  whole  Franciscan  dream  ? 

But  what  especially  amazed  Dominic  was  the  absence 
of  material  cares.  Francis  had  advised  his  brethren  not 
to  disquiet  themselves  in  any  respect  about  food  and 

1  Francis,  wlio  died  in  1226,  is  canonized  in  1228  ;  Anthony  of  Padua, 
1231  and  1233  -,  Elisabeth  of  Thuringia,  1231  and  1235  ;  Dominic,  1221 
and  1234. 

2  3  Soc,  61. 

3  Shed  abroad,  Lord,  thy  Spirit,  and  all  shall  be  created,  and  thou 
Shalt  renew  the  face  of  the  earth. 


ST.  DOMIXIC  AXD  ST.  FRANCIS 


219 


drink;  he  knew  by  experience  that  they  might  fearlessly 
trust  all  that  to  the  love  of  the  neighboring  population. 
This  want  of  carefulness  had  greatly  surprised  Dominic, 
who  thought  it  exaggerated  ;  he  was  able  to  reassure  him- 
self, when  meal-time  arrived,  by  seeing  the  inhabitants 
of  the  district  hastening  in  crowds  to  bring  far  larger 
supplies  of  provisions  than  were  needed  for  the  several 
thousands  of  friars,  and  holding  it  an  honor  to  wait  upon 
them. 

The  joy  of  the  Franciscans,  the  sympathy  of  the  pop- 
ulace with  them,  the  poverty  of  the  huts  of  Portiuncula, 
all  this  impressed  him  deeply  ;  so  much  was  he  moved 
by  it  that  in  a  burst  of  enthusiasm  he  announced  his  res- 
olution to  embrace  gospel  poverty.1 

Ugolini,  though  also  moved,  even  to  tears,2  did  not  for- 
get his  former  anxieties  ;  the  Order  was  too  numerous 
not  to  include  a  group  of  malcontents  ;  a  few  friars  who 
before  their  conversion  had  studied  in  the  universities  be- 
gan to  condemn  the  extreme  simplicity  laid  upon  them  as 
a  duty.  To  men  no  longer  sustained  by  enthusiasm  the 
short  precepts  of  the  Rule  appeared  a  charter  all  too  in- 
sufficient for  a  vast  association  ;  they  turned  with  envy 
toward  the  monumental  abbeys  of  the  Benedictines,  the 
regular  Canons,  the  Cistercians,  and  toward  the  ancient 
monastic  legislations.  They  had  no  difficulty  in  per- 
ceiving in  Ugolini  a  powerful  ally,  nor  in  confiding  their 
observations  to  him. 

The  latter  deemed  the  propitious  moment  arrived, 
and  in  a  private  conversation  with  Francis  made  a  few 

1  2  Cel.,  3,  87  ;  Spec,  132b  ;  Conform.,  207a,  112a  ;  Fior.,  18.  The 
historians  of  St.  Dominic  have  not  received  these  details  kindly,  but  an 
incontestable  point  gained  from  diplomatic  documents  is  that  in  1218 
Dominic,  at  Rome,  procured  privileges  in  which  the  properties  of  his 
Order  were  indicated,  and  that  in  1220  he  led  his  friars  to  profess  pov- 
erty. 

2  2  Cel.,  3,  9  ;  Spec,  17a. 


220 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


suggestions  :  Ought  he  not  give  to  his  disciples,  espe- 
cially to  the  educated  among  them,  a  greater  share  of  the 
burdens  ?  consult  them,  gain  inspiration  from  their  views  ? 
was  there  not  room  to  profit  by  the  experience  of  the 
older  orders  ?  Though  all  this  was  said  casually  and 
with  the  greatest  possible  tact,  Francis  felt  hims"elf 
wounded  to  the  quick,  and  without  answering  he  drew 
the  cardinal  to  the  very  midst  of  the  chapter. 

"  My  brothers,"  said  he  with  fire,  "  the  Lord  has  called 
me  into  the  ways  of  simplicity  and  humility.  In  them 
he  has  shown  me  the  truth  for  myself  and  for  those  who 
desire  to  believe  and  follow  me  ;  do  not,  then,  come  speak- 
ing to  me  of  the  Rule  of  St.  Benedict,  of  St.  Augustine, 
of  St.  Bernard,  or  of  any  other,  but  solely  of  that  which 
God  in  his  mercy  has  seen  fit  to  show  to  me,  and  of 
which  he  has  told  me  that  he  would,  by  its  means,  make 
a  new  covenant  with  the  world,  and  he  does  not  will  that 
we  should  have  any  other.  But  by  your  learning  and 
your  wisdom  God  will  bring  you  to  confusion.  For  I  am 
persuaded  that  God  will  chastise  you  ;  whether  you  will 
or  no  you  will  be  forced  to  come  to  repentance,  and  noth- 
ing will  remain  for  you  but  confusion."  1 

This  warmth  in  defending  and  affirming  his  ideas  pro- 
foundly astonished  Ugolini,  who  added  not  a  word.  As 
to  Dominic,  what  he  had  just  seen  at  Portiuncula  was  to 
him  a  revelation.  He  felt,  indeed,  that  his  zeal  for  the 
Church  could  not  be  greater,  but  he  also  perceived  that 
he  could  serve  her  with  more  success  by  certain  changes 
in  his  weapons. 

Ugolini  no  doubt  only  encouraged  him  in  this  view, 
and  Dominic,  beset  with  new  anxieties,  set  out  a  few 
months  later  for  Spain.  The  intensity  of  the  crisis 
through  which  he  passed  has  not  been  sufficiently  no- 

1  Spec.,  49a;  Tribul.,  Laur.  MS.,  lla-12b;  Spec,  183a;  Conform., 
135b  1. 


ST.  DOMINIC  AND  ST.  FRANCIS 


221 


ticed  ;  the  religious  writers  recount  at  length  his  sojourn 
in  the  grotto  of  Segovia,  but  they  see  only  the  ascetic 
practices,  the  prayers,  the  genuflexions,  and  do  not  think 
of  looking  for  the  cause  of  all  this.  From  this  epoch  it 
might  be  said  that  he  was  unceasingly  occupied  in  copy- 
ing Francis,  if  the  word  had  not  a  somewhat  displeasing 
sense.  Arrived  at  Segovia  he  follows  the  example  of  the 
Brothers  Minor,  founds  a  hermitage  in  the  outskirts  of  the 
city,  hidden  among  the  rocks  which  overlook  the  town,  and 
thence  he  descends  from  time  to  time  to  preach  to  the 
people.  The  transformation  in  his  mode  of  life  was  so 
evident  that  several  of  his  companions  rebelled  and  re- 
fused to  follow  him  in  the  new  way. 

Popular  sentiment  has  at  times  its  intuitions  ;  a  legend 
grew  up  around  this  grotto  of  Segovia,  and  it  was  said 
that  St.  Dominic  there  received  the  stigmata.  Is  there 
not  here  an  unconscious  effort  to  translate  into  an  image 
within  the  comprehension  of  all,  that  which  actually 
took  place  in  this  cave  of  the  Sierra  da  Guaderrama  ? 1 

Thus  St.  Dominic  also  arrived  at  the  poverty  of  the 
gospel,  but  the  road  by  which  he  reached  it  was  different 
indeed  from  that  which  St.  Francis  had  followed;  while 
the  latter  had  soared  to  it  as  on  wings,  had  seen  in  it  the 
final  emancipation  from  all  the  anxieties  which  debase 
this  life,  St.  Dominic  considered  it  only  as  a  means  ;  it 
was  for  him  one  more  weapon  in  the  arsenal  of  the  host 
charged  with  the  defence  of  the  Church.  "We  must  not 
see  in  this,  a  mere  vulgar  calculation  ;  his  admiration  for 
him  whom  he  thus  imitated  and  followed  afar  off  Was 
sincere  and  profound,  but  genius  is  not  to  be  copied. 
This  sacred  malady  was  not  his  ;  he  has  transmitted  to 
his  sons  a  sound  and  robust  blood,  thanks  to  which  they 
have  known  nothing  of  those  paroxysms  of  hot  fever, 

1  The  principal  sources  arc  indicated  in  A.  SS,,  Augusti,  t.  i..  pp. 
470  2. 


222 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


those  lofty  flights,  those  sudden  returns  which  make  the 
story  of  the  Franciscans  the  story  of  the  most  tempest- 
tossed  society  which  the  world  has  ever  known,  in  which 
glorious  chapters  are  mingled  with  pages  trivial  and 
grotesque,  sometimes  even  coarse. 

At  the  chapter  of  1218  Francis  had  other  causes  for 
sadness  than  the  murmurs  of  a  group  of  malcontents  ; 
the  missionaries  sent  out  the  year  before  to  Germany 
and  Hungary  had  returned  completely  discouraged. 
The  account  of  the  sufferings  they  had  endured  pro- 
duced so  great  an  effect  that  from  that  time  many  of  the 
friars  added  to  their  prayers  the  for  inula  :  "Lord  pre- 
serve us  from  the  heresy  of  the  Lombards  and  the  feroc- 
ity of  the  Germans.1 

This  explains  how  Ugolini  at  last  succeeded  in  con- 
vincing Francis  of  his  duty  to  take  the  necessary  mea- 
sures no  longer  to  expose  the  friars  to  be  hunted  down 
as  heretics.  It  was  decided  that  at  the  end  of  the  next 
chapter  the  missionaries  should  be  armed  with  a  papal 
brief,  which  should  serve  them  as  ecclesiastical  pass- 
port.   Here  is  the  translation  of  this  document  : 

Honorius,  bishop,  servant  of  the  servants  of  God,  to  the  archbishops, 
bishops,  abbots,  deacons,  archdeacons,  and  other  ecclesiastical  superiors, 
salutation  and  the  apostolic  blessing. 

Our  dear  son,  brother  Francis,  and  his- companions  of  the  life  and  the 
Order  of  the  Brothers  Minor,  having  renounced  the  vanities  of  this 
world  to  choose  a  mode  of  life  which  has  merited  the  approval  of  the 
Roman  Church,  and  to  go  out  after  the  example  of  the  Apostles  to  cast 
in  various  regions  the  seed  of  the  word  of  God,  we  pray  and  exhort  you 
by  these  apostolic  letters  to  receive  as  good  catholics  the  friars  of  the 
above  mentioned  society,  bearers  of  these  presents,  warning  you  to  be 
favorable  to  them  and  treat  them  with  kindness  for  the  honor  of  God 
and  out  of  consideration  for  us. 

Given  (at  Rieti)  this  third  day  of  the  ides  of  June  (June  11,  1219),  in 
the  third  year  of  our  pontificate.2 

1  Giord  ,18;  3  Soc,  62. 

*  Sbaralea,  Bull.fr.,  t.  i.  p.  2  ;  Potthast.  6081  ;  Wadding,  ami.  1210, 


ST.  DOMIXIC  AXD  ST.  FRANCIS 


223 


It  is  evident  that  this  bull  was  calculated  to  avoid 
awakening  Francis's  susceptibilities.  To  understand  pre- 
cisely in  what  it  differs  from  the  first  letters  usually  ac- 
credited to  new  Orders  it  is  necessary  to  compare  it  with 
them  ;  that  which  had  instituted  the  Dominicans  had 
been,  like  the  others,  a  veritable  privilege  ; 1  here  there 
is  nothing  of  the  kind. 

The  assembly  which  was  opened  at  Whitsunday  of 
1219  (May  26)  was  of  extreme  importance.2  It  closed 
the  series  of  those  primitive  chapters  in  which  the  inspi- 
ration and  fancy  of  Francis  were  given  free  course.  Those 
which  followed,  presided  over  by  the  vicars,  have  neither 
the  same  cheerfulness  nor  the  same  charm  ;  the  crude 
glare  of  full  day  has  driven  away  the  hues  of  dawn  and 
the  indescribable  ardors  of  nature  at  its  awakening. 

The  summer  of  1219  was  the  epoch  fixed  by  Honorius 
III.  for  making  a  new  effort  in  the  East,  and  directing 
upon  Egypt  all  the  forces  of  the  Crusaders.3  Francis 
thought  the  moment  arrived  for  realizing  the  project 
which  he  had  not  been  able  to  execute  in  1212.  Strangely 
enough,  Ugolini  who,  two  years  before  had  hindered  his 
going  to  France,  now  left  him  in  entire  liberty  to  cany 
out  this  new  expedition.4  Several  authors  have  deemed 
that  Francis,  having  found  in  him  a  true  protector,  felt 

No.  28,  indicates  the  works  where  the  text  rnay  be  found.  Cf.  A.  SS. , 
p.  839. 

1  The  title  sufficiently  indicated  the  contents  :  Domenico  prion  S. 
Bomani  tolosani  ejusque  fratribus,  eos  in  protectionern  recipit  eorumque 
Ordinem  cum  bonis  etprivilegm  confirmât.  Beligiosam  vitam  :  December 
22,  1216  ;  Pressuti,  t.  i.,  175,  text  in  Horoy  t.  ii.,  col.  141-144. 

2  Vide  A.  SS.,  pp.  608  ff.  and  838  ff. 

3  Vide  Bull  MuUi  divince  of  August  13,  1218.  Horoy,  t.  iii.,  col.  12  ; 
Potthast.  5891. 

4  The  contradiction  is  so  striking  that  the  Bollandists  have  made  of  it 
the  principal  argument  for  defending  the  error  in  their  manuscript  (1 
Cel. ,  75),  and  insisting  in  the  face  of,  and  against  everything  that  Fran- 
cis had  taken  that  journey.    A.  SS.,  607. 


224 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


himself  reassured  as  to  the  future  of  the  Order  ;  he  might 
indeed  have  thought  thus,  but  the  history  of  the  troubles 
which  burst  out  immediately  after  his  departure*  the 
astounding  story  of  the  kind  reception  given  by  the  court 
of  Rome  to  some  meddlers  who  took  the  opportunity  of 
his  absence  to  imperil  his  Order,  would  suffice  to  show 
how  much  the  Church  was  embarrassed  bj~  him,  and  with 
what  ardor  she  longed  for  the  transformation  of  his  work. 
"We  shall  find  later  on  the  detailed  account  of  these  facts. 

It  appears  that  a  Eomagnol  brother  Christopher  was 
at  this  same  chapter  nominated  provincial  of  Gascony  ; 
he  lived  there  after  the  customs  of  the  early  Franciscans, 
working  with  his  hands,  living  in  a  narrow  cell  made  of 
the  boughs  of  trees  and  potter's  earth.1 

Egidio  set  out  for  Tunis  with  a  few  friars,  but  a  great 
disappointment  awaited  them  there  ;  the  Christians  of 
this  country,  in  the  fear  of  being  compromised  by  their 
missionary  zeal,  hurried  them  into  a  boat  and  constrained 
them  to  recross  the  sea.2 

If  the  date  of  1219  for  these  two  missions  has  little 
other  basis  than  conjecture,  the  same  is  not  the  case  as 
to  the  departure  of  the  friars  who  went  to  Spain  and 
Morocco.  The  discovery  has  recently  been  made  of  the 
account  of  their  last  preachings  and  of  their  tragic  death, 
made  by  an  eye-witness.3    This  document  is  all  the  more 

1  He  died  at  Cahors,  October  31,  1272.  His  legend  is  found  in  MS. 
Riccardi,  279,  f°.  69a.  Tncipit  vita  f.  Christopliori  quam  compilavit  fr. 
Bernardus  de  Bessa  custodiœ  Caturcensis  :  Quasi  vas  auri  solidum.  Cf. 
Mark  of  Lisbon,  t.  ii.,  pp.  106-113,  t.  iii.,  p.  212,  and  Glassberger, 
An.  fr.,  t.  ii.,  p.  14. 

2  A.  SS.,  Aprilis,  t.  iii.,  p.  224  ;  Conform,,  118b,  1  ;  54a;  Mark  of 
Lisbon,  t.  ii.,  p.  1. — Brother  Luke  had  been  sent  to  Constantinople,  in 
1219,  at  latest.  Vide  Constitutus  of  December  9,  1220.  Sbaralea,  Bull. 
/r.,  t.  i..  p.  6  ;  Potthast,  6431. 

3  We  owe  to  M.  Millier  {Anfangc,  p.  207)  the  honor  of  this  publica- 
tion, copied  from  a  manuscript  of  the  Cottoniana. 


ST.  DOMINIC  AND  ST.  FRANCIS 


225 


precious  because  it  confirms  the  general  lines  of  the 
much  longer  account  given  by  Mark  of  Lisbon.  It  would 
be  out  of  place  to  give  a  summary  of  it  here,  because  it 
but  very  indirectly  concerns  the  life  of  St.  Francis,  but 
we  must  note  that  these  acta  have  beyond  their  historic 
value  a  truly  remarkable  psychological — one  must  almost 
say  pathological — significance  ;  never  was  the  mania  for 
martyrdom  better  characterized  than  in  these  long  pages, 
where  we  see  the  friars  forcing  the  Mahometans  to  pursue 
them  and  make  them  win  the  heavenly  palm.  The  for- 
bearance which  Miramolin  as  well  as  his  fellow  relig- 
ionists at  first  show  gives  an  idea  of  the  civilization  and 
the  good  qualities  of  these  infidels,  all  the  higher  that 
very  different  sentiments  would  be  natural  in  the  van- 
quished ones  of  the  plains  of  Tolosa. 

It  is  impossible  to  call  by  the  name  of  sermons  the 
collections  of  rude  apostrophes  which  the  missionaries 
addressed  to  those  whom  they  wished  to  convert  ;  at  this 
paroxysm  the  thirst  for  martyrdom  becomes  the  madness 
of  suicide.  Is  this  to  say  that  friars  Bernard,  Pietro,  Ad- 
jutus,  Accurso,  and  Otho  have  no  right  to  the  admiration 
and  worship  with  which  they  have  been  surrounded  ? 
Who  would  dare  say  so  ?  Is  not  devotion  always  blind  ? 
That  a  furrow  should  be  fecund  it  must  have  blood,  it 
must  have  tears,  such  tears  as  St.  Augustine  has  called 
the  blood  of  the  soul.  Ah,  it  is  a  great  mistake  to  im- 
molate oneself,  for  the  blood  of  a  single  man  will  not 
save  the  world  nor  even  a  nation  ;  but  it  is  a  still  greater 
mistake  not  to  immolate  oneself,  for  then  one  lets  others 
be  lost,  and  is  oneself  lost  first  of  all. 

I  greet  you,  therefore,  Martyrs  of  Morocco;  you  do 
not  regret  your  madness,  I  am  sure,  and  if  ever  some 
righteous  pedant  gone  astray  in  the  groves  of  paradise 
undertakes  to  demonstrate  to  you  that  it  would  have 
been  better  worth  while  to  remain  in  your  own  country, 
15 


226 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


and  found  a  worthy  family  of  virtuous  laborers,  I  fancy 
that  Miramolin,  there  become  your  best  friend,  will  take 
the  trouble  to  refute  him. 

You  were  mad,  but  I  envy  such  madness,  for  you  felt 
that  the  essential  thing  in  this  world  is  not  to  serve  this 
ideal  or  that  one,  but  with  all  one's  soul  to  serve  the 
ideal  which  one  has  chosen. 

When,  a  few  months  after,  the  story  of  their  glorious 
end  arrived  at  Assisi,  Francis  discerned  a  feeling  of  pride 
among  his  companions  and  reproached  them  in  lively 
terms  ;  he  who  would  so  have  envied  the  lot  of  the  mar- 
tyrs felt  himself  humbled  because  God  had  not  judged 
him  worthy  to  share  it.  As  the  story  was  mingled  with 
some  words  of  eulogy  of  the  founder  of  the  Order,  he  for- 
bade the  further  reading  of  it.1 

Immediately  after  the  chapter  he  had  himself  under- 
taken a  mission  of  the  same  kind  as  he  had  confided  to 
the  Brothers  of  Morocco,  but  he  had  proceeded  in  it  in 
an  entirely  different  manner  :  his  was  not  the  blind  zeal 
which  courts  death  in  a  sort  of  frenzy  and  forgets  all  the 
rest  ;  perhaps  he  already  felt  that  the  persistent  effort 
after  the  better,  the  continual  immolation  of  self  for 
truth,  is  the  martyrdom  of  the  strong. 

This  expedition,  which  lasted  more  than  a  year,  is  men- 
tioned by  the  biographers  in  a  few  lines.2  Happily  we 
have  a  number  of  other  papers  regarding  it  ;  but  their 
silence  suffices  to  prove  the  sincerity  of  the  primitive 
Franciscan  authors  ;  if  they  had  wanted  to  amplify  the 
deeds  of  their  subject,  where  could  they  have  found  an 
easier  opportunity  or  a  more  marvellous  theme  ?  Francis 
quitted  Portiuncula  in  the  middle  of  June  and  went  to 

1  Giord.,  8. 

2  1  Cel.,  57;  Bon.,  133-138;  154  and  155;  2  Cel.,  2,  2;  Conform., 
113b,  2;  114a,  2  ;  Spec,  55b  :  Fior.,  24. 


ST.  DOMINIC  AND  ST.  FRANCIS 


227 


Ancorta,  whence  the  Crusaders  were  to  set  sail  for  Egypt 
on  St.  John's  Day  (June  24th). 

Many  friars  joined  him — a  fact  which  was  not  without 
its  inconveniences  for  a  journey  by  sea,  where  they  were 
obliged  to  depend  upon  the  charity  of  the  owners  of  the 
boats,  or  of  their  fellow-travellers. 

We  can  understand  Francis's  embarrassment  on  arriv- 
ing at  Ancona  and  finding  himself  obliged  to  leave  be- 
hind a  number  of  those  who  so  earnestly  longed  to  go 
with  him.  The  Conformities  relate  here  an  incident  for 
which  we  might  desire  an  earlier  authority,  but  which  is 
certainly  very  like  Francis  ;  he  led  all  his  friends  to  the 
port  and  explained  to  them  his  perplexities.  "The 
people  of  the  boat,"  he  told  them,  "  refuse  to  take  us  all, 
and  I  have  not  the  courage  to  make  choice  among  you; 
you  might  think  that  I  do  not  love  you  all  alike  ;  let  us 
then  try  to  learn  the  will  of  God."  And  he  called  a 
child  who  was  playing  close  by,  and  the  little  one, 
charmed  to  take  the  part  of  Providence  put  upon  him, 
pointed  out  with  his  finger  the  eleven  friars  who  were  to 
set  sail.1 

We  do  not  know  what  itinerary  they  followed.  A 
single  incident  of  the  journey  has  come  down  to  us: 
that  of  the  chastisement  inflicted  in  the  isle  of  Cyprus  on 
Brother  Barbaro,  who  had  been  guilty  of  the  fault  which 
the  master  detested  above  all  others — evil-speaking.  He 
was  implacable  with  regard  to  the  looseness  of  lan- 
guage so  customary  among  pious  folk,  and  which  often 
made  a  hell  of  religious  houses  apparently  the  most 
peaceful.  The  offence  this  time  appeared  to  him  the 
more  grave  for  having  been  uttered  in  the  presence  of 
a  stranger,  a  knight  of  that  district.  The  latter  was 
stupefied  on  hearing  Francis  command  the  guilty  one  to 
eat  a  lump  of  ass's  dung  which  lay  there,  adding  :  "  The 
1  Conform.,  113b,  2;  cf.  A.  SS.S  p.  611. 


228 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


mouth  which  has  distilled  the  venom  of  hatred  against 
my  brother  must  eat  this  excrement."  Such  indigna- 
tion, no  less  than  the  obedience  of  the  unhappy  offender, 
filled  him  with  admiration.1 

It  is  very  probable,  as  Wadding  has  supposed,  that 
the  missionaries  debarked  at  St.  Jean  d'Acre.  They  ar- 
rived there  about  the  middle  of  July.'  In  the  environs 
of  this  city,  doubtless,  Brother  Elias  had  been  established 
for  one  or  two  years.  Francis  there  told  off  a  few  of  his 
companions,  whom  he  sent  to  preach  in  divers  directions, 
and  a  few  days  afterward  he  himself  set  out  for  Egypt, 
where  all  the  efforts  of  the  Crusaders  were  concentrated 
upon  Damietta. 

From  the  first  he  was  heart-broken  with  the  moral 
condition  of  the  Christian  army.  Notwithstanding  the 
presence  of  numerous  prelates  and  of  the  apostolic 
legate,  it  was  disorganized  for  want  of  discipline.  He 
was  so  affected  by  this  that  when  there  was  talk  of  battle 
he  felt  it  his  duty  to  advise  against  it,  predicting  that 
the  Christians  would  infallibly  be  beaten.  No  one  heeded 
him,  and  on  August  29th  the  Crusaders,  having  attacked 
the  Saracens,  were  terribly  routed.3 

His  predictions  won  him  a  marvellous  success.  It 
must  be  owned  that  the  ground  was  better  prepared 
than  any  other  to  receive  the  new  seed  ;  not  surely  that 
piety  was  alive  there,  but  in  this  mass  of  men  come  to- 
gether from  every  corner  of  Europe,  the  troubled,  the 
seers,  the  enlightened  ones,  those  who  thirsted  for  right- 
eousness and  truth,  were  elbowed  by  rascals,  adventurers, 

1  2  Cel.,  3,  92  ;  Spec.,  30b.  Cf.  2  Cel.,  3,  115.  Conform.,  142b,  1. 
Tbis  incident  may  possibly  bave  taken  place  on  the  return. 

2  With  the  facilities  of  that  period  tbe  voyage  required  from  twenty 
to  thirty  days.  The  diarium  of  a  similar  passage  may  be  found  in  Huil- 
lard-Bréholles,  Hist.  Dipl.,  t.  i,  898-901.  Cf.  Ibid.,  Introd.,  p. 
cccxxxi. 

s  2  Cel.,  22  ;  Bon  154,  155  ;  cf.  A.  SS.,  p.  612. 


ST.  DOMIXIC  AXD  ST.  FRANCIS 


229 


those  who  were  greedy  for  gold  and  plunder,  capable  of 
much  good  or  much  evil,  the  sport  of  fleeting  impulses, 
loosed/  from  the  bonds  of  the  family,  of  property,  of  the 
habits  which  usually  twine  themselves  about  man's  will, 
and  only  by  exception  permit  a  complete  change  in  his 
manner  of  life  ;  those  among  them  who  were  sincere 
and  had  come  there  with  generous  purposes  were,  so 
to  speak,  predestined  to  enter  the  peaceful  army  of  the 
Brothers  Minor.  Francis  was  to  win  in  this  mission  fel- 
low-laborers who  would  assure  the  success  of  his  work  in 
the  countries  of  northern  Europe. 

Jacques  de  Vifcry,  in  a  letter  to  friends  written  a  few 
days  later,  thus  describes  the  impression  produced  on 
him  by  Francis  : 

'•'I  announce  to  you  that  Master  Reynier,  Prior  of  St.  Michael,  has 
entered  the  Order  of  the  Brothers  Minor,  an  Order  which  is  multiplying 
rapidly  on  all  sides,  because  it  imitates  the  primitive  Church  and  fol- 
lows the  life  of  the  Apostles  in  everything.  The  master  of  these 
Brothers  is  named  Brother  Francis  ;  he  is  so  lovable  that  he  is  venerated 
by  everyone.  Having  come  into  our  army,  he  has  not  been  afraid,  in 
his  zeal  for  the  faith,  to  go  to  that  of  our  enemies.  For  days  together 
he  announced  the  word  of  God  to  the  Saracens,  but  with  little  success  ; 
then  the  sultan,  King  of  Egvpt.  asked  him  in  secret  to  entreat  God  to 
reveal  to  him,  by  some  miracle,  which  is  the  best  religion.  Colin,  the 
Englishman,  our  clerk,  has  entered  the  same  Order,  as  also  two  others 
of  our  companions,  Michael  and  Dom  Matthew,  to  whom  I  had  given 
the  rectorship  of  the  Sainte  Chapelle.  Cantor  and  Henry  have  done 
the  same,  and  still  others  whose  names  I  have  forgotten."  1 

The  long  and  enthusiastic  chapter  which  the  same  au- 
thor gives  to  the  Brothers  Minor  in  his  great  work  on  the 
Occident  is  too  diffuse  to  find  a  place  here.  It  is  a  liv- 
ing and  accurate  picture  of  the  early  times  of  the  Order  ; 
in  it  Francis's  sermon  before  the  sultan  is  again  related. 
It  was  written  at  a  period  Avhen  the  friars  had  still  neither 

1  Jacques  de  Vitry  speaks  only  incidentally  of  Francis  here  in  the 
midst  of  salutations  ;  from  the  critical  point  of  view  this  only  enhances 
the  value  of  his  words.    See  the  Study  of  the  Sources,  p.  428. 


230 


LTFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


monasteries  nor  churches,  and  when  the  chapters  were 
held  once  or  twice  a  year  ;  this  gives  us  a  date  anterior 
to  1223,  and  probably  even  before  1221.  We  have  here, 
therefore,  a  verification  of  the  narratives  of  Thomas  of 
Celano  and  the  Three  Companions,  and  they  find  in  it 
their  perfect  confirmation. 

As  to  the  interviews  between  Francis  and  the  sultan, 
it  is  prudent  to  keep  to  the  narratives  of  Jacques  de 
Vitry  and  William  of  Tyre.1  Although  the  latter  wrote 
at  a  comparatively  late  date  (between  1275  and  1295),  he 
followed  a  truly  historic  method,  and  founded  his  work 
on  authentic  documents  ;  we  see  that  he  knows  no  more 
than  Jacques  de  Vitry  of  the  proposal  said  to  have  been 
made  by  Francis  to  pass  through  a  fire  if  the  priests  of 
Mahomet  would  do  as  much,  intending  so  to  establish  the 
superiority  of  Christianity. 

We  know  how  little  such  an  appeal  to  signs  is  character- 
istic of  St.  Francis.  Perhaps  the  story,  which  comes  from 
Bonaventura,  is  born  of  a  misconception.  The  sultan, 
like  a  new  Pharaoh,  may  have  laid  it  upon  the  strange 
preacher  to  prove  his  mission  by  miracles.  However 
this  may  bê,  Francis  and  his  companions  were  treated 
with  great  consideration,  a  fact  the  more  meritorious  that 
hostilities  were  then  at  their  height. 

Returned  to  the  Crusading  camp,  they  remained  there 
until  after  the  taking  of  Damietta  (November  5,  1219). 
This  time  the  Christians  were  victorious,  but  perhaps 
the  heart  of  the  gospel  man  bled  more  for  this  victory 
than  for  the  defeat  of  August  29th.  The  shocking  condi- 
tion of  the  city,  which  the  victors  found  piled  with  heaps 
of  dead  bodies,  the  quarrels  over  the  sharing  of  booty, 
the  sale  of  the  wretched  creatures  who  had  not  suc- 
cumbed to  the  pestilence,2  all  these  scenes  of  terror,  cru- 

1  Vide  below,  the  Study  of  the  Sources,  p.  430. 
?  All  this  is  related  at  length  by  Jacques  de  Vitry. 


ST.  DOMINIC  AND  ST.  FRANCIS  231 


eltj,  greed,  caused  him  profound  horror.  The  "  human 
beast  "  was  let  loose,  the  apostle's  voice  could  no  more 
make  itself  heard  in  the  midst  of  the  savage  clamor  than 
that  of  a  life-saver  over  a  raging  ocean. 

He  set  out  for  Syria1  and  the  Holy  Places.  How 
gladly  would  we  follow  him  in  this  pilgrimage,  accompany 
him  in  thought  through  Judea  and  Galilee,  to  Bethlehem, 
to  Nazareth,  to  Gethsemane  !  What  was  said  to  him  by 
the  stable  where  the  Son  of  Mary  was  born,  the  work- 
shop where  he  toiled,  the  olive-tree  where  he  accepted 
the  bitter  cup  ?  Alas  !  the  documents  here  suddenly 
fail  us.  Setting  out  from  Damietta  very  shortly  after 
the  siege  (November  5,  1219)  he  may  easily  have  been 
at  Bethlehem  by  Christmas.  But  we  know  nothing,  ab- 
solutely nothing,  excej)t  that  his  sojourn  was  more  pro- 
longed than  had  been  expected. 

Some  of  the  Brothers  who  were  present  at  Portiuncula 
at  the  chapter-general  of  1220  (Whitsunday,  May  17th) 
had  time  enough  to  go  to  Syria  and  still  find  Francis 
there  ; 2  they  could  hardly  have  arrived  much  earlier  than 
the  end  of  June.  What  had  he  been  doing  those  eight 
months  ?  Why  had  he  not  gone  home  to  preside  at  the 
chapter  ?  Had  he  been  ill  ? 3  Had  he  been  belated  by 
some  mission  ?  Our  information  is  too  slight  to  permit 
us  even  to  venture  upon  conjecture. 

Angelo  Clareno  relates  that  the   Sultan  of  Egypt, 

1  "Cil  horn  qui  comença  l'ordre  des  Frères  Mineurs,  si  ot  nom  frère 
François  .  .  .  vint  en  l'ost  de  Daniiate,  e  i  fist  moult  de  bien,  et 
demora  tant  que  la  ville  fut  prise.  Il  vit  le  mal  et  le  péché  qui  comen- 
ça à  croistre  entre  les  gens  de  Tost,  si  li  desplot,  par  quoi  il  s'en  parti, 
e  fu  une  pièce  en  Surie,  et  puis  s'en  rala  en  son  païs."  Historiens  des 
Croisades,  ii.  L'Est  de  Evades  Empereur,  liv.  xxxii.,  chap.  xv.  Cf. 
Sanuto  ;  Sécréta  fiel,  crue,  lib.  iii.,  p.  xi.,  cap.  8,  in  Bongars. 

2  Giord.,  Chron.,  11-14. 

3  The  episode  of  Brother  Leonard's  complaints,  related  below,  gives 
some  probability  to  this  hypothesis. 


232 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


touched  by  liis  preaching,  gave  command  that  he  and 
all  his  friars  should  have  free  access  to  the  Holy  Sepul- 
chre without  the  payment  of  any  tribute.1 

Bartholomew  of  Pisa  on  his  part  says  incidentally  that 
Francis,  having  gone  to  preach  in  Antioch  and  its  envi- 
rons, the  Benedictines  of  the  Abbey  of  the  Black  Moun- 
tain,2 eight  miles  from  that  city,  joined  the  Order  in  a 
body,  and  gave  up  all  their  property  to  the  Patriarch. 

These  indications  are  meagre  and  isolated  indeed,  and 
the  second  is  to  be  accepted  only  with  reserve.  On  the 
other  hand,  we  have  detailed  information  of  what  went 
on  in  Italy  during  Francis's  absence.  Brother  Giorda- 
no's chronicle,  recently  discovered  and  published,  throws 
all  the  light  that  could  be  desired  upon  a  plot  laid  against 
Francis  by  the  very  persons  whom  he  had  commissioned 
to  take  his  place  at  Portiuncula,  and  this,  if  not  with  the 
connivance  of  Rome  and  the  cardinal  protector,  at  least 
without  their  opposition.  These  events  had  indeed  been 
narrated  by  Angelo  Clareno,  but  the  undisguised  feeling 
which  breathes  through  all  his  writings  and  their  lack  of 
accuracy  had  sufficed  with  careful  critics  to  leave  them  in 
doubt.  How  could  it  be  supposed  that  in  the  very  life- 
time of  St.  Francis  the  vicars  whom  he  had  instituted 
could  take  advantage  of  his  absence  to  overthrow  his 
work  ?  How  could  it  be  that  the  pope,  who  during  this 
period  was  sojourning  at  Rieti,  how  that  Ugolini,  who 
was  still  nearer,  did  not  impose  silence  on  these  agita- 
tors?3 

Now  that  all  the  facts  come  anew  to  light,  not  in  an 

1  Tribul.,  Laur.  MS.,  9b.  Cf.  10b:  Sepulcro  Domini  visit  ato  festin  at 
ad  Christianorum  terrain. 

2  Upon  this  monastery  see  a  letter  ad  familiar  es  of  Jacques  de  Vitry, 
written  in  1216  and  published  in  1847  by  Baron  Jules  de  St.  Génois  in 
t.  xiii.  of  the  Mémoires  de  P  Académie  royale  des  sciences  et  des  beaux  arts 
de  Bruxelles  (1849).    Conform.,  106b,  2  ;  114a,  2  ;  Spec,  184. 

3  A.  SS.,  pp.  619-620,  848,  851,  638. 


ST.  DOMINIC  AND  ST.  FRANCIS 


233 


oratorical  and  impassioned  account,  but  brief,  precise,  cut- 
ting, dated,  with  every  appearance  of  notes  taken  day  by 
day,  we  must  perforce  yield  to  evidence. 

Does  this  give  us  reason  clamorously  to  condemn  Ugo- 
lino  and  the  pope  ?  I  do  not  think  so.  They  played  a 
part  which  is  not  to  their  honor,  but  their  intentions  were 
evidently  excellent.  If  the  famous  aphorism  that  the  end 
justifies  the  means  is  criminal  where  one  examines  his 
own  conduct,  it  becomes  the  first  duty  in  judging  that  of 
others.    Here  are  the  facts  : 

On  July  25th,  about  one  month  after  Francis's  de- 
parture for  Syria,  Ugolini,  who  was  at  Perugia,  laid 
upon  the  Clarisses  of  Monticelli  (Florence),  Sienna,  Pe- 
rugia, and  Lucca  that  which  his  friend  had  so  obstinately 
refused  for  the  friars,  the  Benedictine  Rule.1 

At  the  same  time,  St.  Dominic,  returning  from  Spain 
full  of  new  ardor  after  his  retreat  in  the  grotto  of  Segovia, 
and  fully  decided  to  adopt  for  his  Order  the  rule  of  pov- 
erty, was  strongly  encouraged  in  this  purpose  and  over- 
whelmed with  favors.2  Honorius  III.  saw  in  him  the 
providential  man  of  the  time,  the  reformer  of  the  monas- 
tic Orders  ;  he  showed  him  unusual  attentions,  going  so 
far,  for  example,  as  to  transfer  to  him  a  group  of  monks 
belonging  to  other  Orders,  whom  he  appointed  to  act  as 
Dominic's  lieutenants  on  the  preaching  tours  which  he 
believed  it  to  be  his  duty  to  undertake,  and  to  serve, 
under  his  direction,  an  apprenticeship  in  popular  preach- 
ing.3 

That  Ugolini  was  the  inspiration  of  all  this,  the  bulls 

1  Tide  Bull  Sacrosancta  of  December  9,  1219.  Cf.  those  of  Septem- 
ber 19,  1222  ;  Sbaralea,  i.,  p.  3,  11  ff.  ;  Potthast.  6179.  6879a,  b,  c. 

3  Tide  Potthast,  6155,  6177,  6184,  6199,  6214.  6217,  6218,  6220,  6246. 
See  also  Chartularium  Unicersitatis  Par.,  t.  i..  487. 

3  Bull  Quia  qaiseminant  of  May  12,  1220.  Eipalli,  Bui.  Prœd.,  t.  L, 
p.  10  (Potthast,  6249). 


2M 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


are  here  to  witness.  His  ruling  purpose  at  that  time 
was  so  clearly  to  direct  the  two  new  Orders  that  he  chose 
a  domicile  with  this  end  in  view,  and  we  find  him  contin- 
ually either  at  Perugia — that  is  to  say,  within  three  leagues 
of  Portiuncula — or  at  Bologna,  the  stronghold  of  the  Do- 
minicans. 

It  now  becomes  manifest  that  just  as  the  fraternity  in- 
stituted by  Francis  was  truly  the  fruit  of  his  body,  flesh 
of  his  flesh,  so  does  the  Order  of  the  Preaching  Friars 
emanate  from  the  papacy,  and  St.  Dominic  is  only  its 
putative  father.  This  character  is  expressed  in  one 
word  by  one  of  the  most  authoritative  of  contemporary 
annalists,  Burchard  of  Ursperg  (*J«1226).  "  The  pope," 
he  says,  "  instituted  and  confirmed  the  Order  of  the 
Preachers."  1 

Francis  on  his  journey  in  the  Orient  had  taken  for 
special  companion  a  friar  whom  we  have  not  yet  met, 
Pietro  di  Catana  or  dei  Cattani.  Was  he  a  native  of  the 
town  of  Catana  ?  There  is  no  precise  indication  of  it. 
It  appears  more  probable  that  he  belonged  to  the  noble 
family  dei  Cattani,  already  known  to  Francis,  and  of 
which  Orlando,  Count  of  Chiusi  in  Casentino,  who  gave 

1  Mon.  Germ.  Mst.  Script.,  t.  23,  p.  376.  This  passage  is  of  extreme 
importance  because  it  sums  up  in  a  few  lines  the  ecclesiastical  policy  of 
Honorius  III.  After  speaking  of  the  perils  with  which  the  Humiliati 
threatened  the  Church,  Burchard  adds  :  Qtiœ  wlens  corrigere  domi- 
mis  papa  ordinem  Predicatorum  instiluit  et  confirmavit.  Now  these 
Humiliati  were  an  approved  Order.  But  Burchard,  while  classing  them 
with  heretics  beside  the  Poor  Men  of  Lyons,  expresses  in  a  word  the  sen- 
timents of  the  papacy  toward  them  ;  it  had  for  them  an  invincible  re- 
pugnance, and  not  wishing  to  strike  them  directly  it  sought  a  side  issue. 
Similar  tactics  were  followed  with  regard  to  the  Brothers  Minor,  with 
that  overplus  of  caution  which  the  prodigious  success  of  the  Order  in- 
spired. It  all  became  useless  when  in  1221  Brother  Elias  became  Fran- 
cis's vicar,  and  especially  when,  after  the  latter's  death,  he  had  all  the 
liberty  necessary  for  directing  the  Order  according  to  the  views  of  Ugo- 
lini,  now  become  Gregory  IX. 


ST.  DOMINIC  AXD  ST.  FRANCIS 


235 


him  the  Yerna,  was  a  member.  However  that  may  be, 
we  must  not  confound  him  with  the  Brother  Pietro  who 
assumed  the  habit  in  1209,  at  the  same  time  with  Ber- 
nardo of  Quintavallo,  and  died  shortly  afterward.  Tradi- 
tion, in  reducing  these  two  men  to  a  single  personage, 
was  influenced  not  merely  by  the  similarity  of  the  names, 
but  also  by  the  very  natural  desire  to  increase  the  pres- 
tige of  one  who  in  1220-1221  was  to  play  an  important 
part  in  the  direction  of  the  Order.1 

At  the  time  of  his  departure  for  the  East  Francis  had 
left  two  vicars  in  his  place,  the  Brothers  Matteo  of  Nar- 
ni  and  Gregorio  of  Xaples.  The  former  Avas  especially 
charged  to  remain  at  Portiuncula  to  admit  postulants  ; 3 
Gregorio  of  Naples,  on  the  other  hand,  was  to  pass 
through  Italy  to  console  the  Brothers.3 

The  two  vicars  began  at  once  to  overturn  everything. 
It  is  inexplicable  how  men  still  under  the  influence  of 
their  first  fervor  for  a  Bule  which  in  the  plenitude  of 
their  liberty  they  had  promised  to  obey  could  have 

1  1  Cel..  25  ;  cf.  A.  SS. .  p.  581 .  Pietro  di  Catana  had  tlie  title  of  doc- 
tor of  laws,.  Giord. ,  11,  which  entirely  disagrees  with  what  is  related 
of  Brother  Pietro,  3  Soc,  28  and  29.  Cf.  Bon.,  28  and  29  ;  Spec,  5b  ; 
Fior.,  2  :  Conform.,  47;  52b,  2  ;  Petrus  vir  liiteratus  erat  et  nobilis, 
Giord.,  12, 

-  We  know  nothing  more  of  him  except  that  after  his  death  he  had 
the  gift  of  miracles.    Giord:,  11  ;  Conform.,  62a,  1. 

3  He  was  not  an  ordinary  man  ;  a  remarkable  administrator  and  ora- 
tor (Eccl. ,  6),  he  was  minister  in  France  before  1221  and  again  in  1240, 
thanks  to  the  zeal  with  which  he  had  adopted  the  ideas  of  Brother 
Elias.  He  was  nephew  of  Gregory  IX.  ,  which  throws  some  light  npon 
the  practices  which  have  just  been  described.  After  having  been  swept 
away  in  Elias's  disgrace  and  condemned  to  prison  for  life,  he  became  in 
the  end  Bishop  of  Baveux.  I  note  for  those  who  take  an  interest  in 
those  things  that  manuscripts  of  two  of  his  sermons  may  be  found  in 
the  Xational Library  of  Paris.  The  author  of  them  being  indicated  simply 
asfr.  Gr.  min.,  it  has  only  lately  become  known  whose  they  were. 
These  sermons  were  preached  in  Paris  on  Holy  Thursday  and  Saturday. 
MS.  new.  acq..  Lat.,  338  F  148,  159. 


236 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


dreamed  of  such  innovations  if  they  had  not  been  urged 
on  and  upheld  by  those  in  high  places.  To  alleviate  the 
vow  of  poverty  and  to  multiply  observances  were  the 
two  points  toward  which  their  efforts  were  bent. 

In  appearance  it  was  a  trifling  matter,  in  reality  it  was 
much,  for  it  was  the  first  movement  of  the  old  spirit 
against  the  new.  It  was  the  effort  of  men  who  uncon- 
sciously, I  am  willing  to  think,  made  religion  an  affair  of 
rite  and  observance,  instead  of  seeing  in  it,  like  St.  Fran- 
cis, the  conquest  of  the  liberty  which  makes  us  free  in  all 
things,  and  leads  each  soul  to  obey  that  divine  and  mys- 
terious power  which  the  flowers  of  the  fields  adore,  which 
the  birds  of  the  air  bless,  which  the  symphony  of  the 
stars  praises,  and  which  Jesus  of  Nazareth  called  Abba, 
that  is  to  say,  Father. 

The  first  Rule  was  excessively  simple  in  the  matter  of 
fasts.  The  friars  were  to  abstain  from  meat  on  Wednes- 
days and  Fridays  ;  they  might  add  Mondays  and  Satur- 
days, but  only  on  Francis's  special  authorization.  The 
vicars  and  their  adherents  complicated  this  rule  in  a  sur- 
prising manner.  At  the  chapter-general  held  in  Fran- 
cis's absence  (May  17,  1220),  they  decided,  first,  that  in 
times  of  feasting  the  friars  were  not  to  provide  meat, 
but  if  it  were  offered  to  them  spontaneously  they  were  to 
eat  it  ;  second,  that  all  should  fast  on  Mondays  as  well  as 
Wednesdays  and  Fridays  ;  third,  that  on  Mondays  and 
Saturdays  they  should  abstain  from  milk  products  unless 
by  chance  the  actfierents  of  the  Order  brought  some  to 
them.1 

These  beginnings  bear  witness  also  to  an  effort  to  imi- 
tate the  ancient  Orders,  not  without  the  vague  hope  that 
they  would  be  substituted  fdr-s.them.  Brother  Giordano 
has  preservedvto  us  only  this  decision  of  the  chapter  of 
1220,  but*  the  expressions  of  which  he  makes  use  suffi - 
1  Giord.,  11.    Cf.  Spec,  34b.    Fior.,  4;  Conform.,  184a,  1. 


ST.  DOMIXIC  AND  ST.  FRANCIS 


237 


ciently  prove  that  it  was  far  from  being  the  only  one, 
and  that  the  malcontents  had  desired,  as  in  the  chapters 
of  Citeaux  and  Monte  Cassino,  to  put  forth  veritable  con- 
stitutions. 

These  modifications  of  the  Rule  did  not  pass,  however, 
without  arousing  the  indignation  of  a  part  of  the  chap- 
ter ;  a  lay  brother  made  himself  their  eager  messenger, 
and  set  out  for  the  East  to  entreat  Francis  to  return 
without  delay,  to  take  the  measures  called  for  by  the 
circumstances. 

There  were  also  other  causes  of  disquiet.  Brother 
Philip,  a  Zealot  of  the  Clarisses,  had  made  haste  to  se- 
cure for  them  from  Ugolini  the  privileges  which  had 
already  been  under  consideration.1 

À  certain  Brother  Giovanni  di  Conpello 2  had  gathered 
together  a  great  number  of  lepers  of  both  sexes,  and 
written  a  Bule,  intending  to  form  with  them  a  new  Order. 
He  had  afterward  presented  himself  before  the  supreme 
pontiff  with  a  train  of  these  unfortunates  to  obtain  his 
approbation. 

Many  other  distressing  symptoms,  upon  which  Brother 
Giordano  does  not  dwell,  had  manifested  themselves. 
The  report  of  Francis's  death  had  even  been  spread 
abroad,  so  that  the  whole  Order  was  disturbed,  divided, 
and  in  the  greatest  peril.    The  dark  presentiments  which 

1  Giord..  12.    Cf.  Bull  Sacrosancta  of  December  9,  1219. 

'-'  Giord.,  12.  Ought  we.  perhaps,  to  read  di  Campello  ?  Half  way  be- 
tween Foligno  and  Spoleto  there  is  a  place  of  this  name.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  3  Soc. ,  35.  indicate  the  entrance  into  the  Order  of  a  Giovan- 
ni di  Capella  who  in  the  legend  became  the  Franciscan  Judas  Invertit 
abusum  capelle  et  ab  ipsa  denominatus  est:  ab  online  recedens  f actus  le- 
prosus  laqueo  ut  Judas  se  suspendit.  Conform.,  104a,  1.  Cf.  Bernard  de 
Besse,  96a  ;  Spec,  2;  Fior.,  1.  All  this  is  much  mixed  up.  Perhaps 
we  should  believe  that  Giovanni  di  Campello  died  shortly  afterward, 
and  that  later  on,  when  the  stories  of  this  troubled  time  were  forgotten, 
some  ingenious  Brother  explained  the  note  of  infamy  attached  to  his 
memory  by  a  hypothesis  built  upon  his  name  itself. 


23S 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Francis  seems  to  have  had  were  exceeded  by  the  reality.1 
The  messenger  who  brought  him  the  sad  news  found  him 
in  Syria,  probably  at  St.  Jean  d'Acre.  He  at  once  em- 
barked with  Elias,  Pietro  di  Catana,  Caesar  of  Speyer,  and 
a  few  others,  and  returned  to  Italy  in  a  vessel  bound  for 
Venice,  where  he  might  easily  arrive  toward  the  end  of 
July. 

1  Giord.,  12,  13,  and  14. 


CHAPTER  XIV 


THE  CRISIS  OF  THE  ORDER 1 

Autumn.  1220 

On  his  arrival  in  Venice  Francis  informed  himself  yet 
more  exactly  concerning  all  that  had  happened,  and  con- 
voked the  chapter-general  at  Portkuicula  for  Michael- 
mas (September  29,  1220). 2  His  first  care  was  doubtless 
to  reassure  his  sister-friend  at  St.  Damian  ;  a  short  frag- 
ment of  a  letter  which  has  been  preserved  to  us  gives  in- 
dication of  the  sad  anxieties  which  filled  his  mind  : 

"I,  little  Brother  Francis,  desire  to  follow  the  life  and  the  poverty  of 
Jesus  Christ,  our  most  high  Lord,  and  of  his  most  holy  Mother,  perse- 
vering therein  until  the  end  ;  and  I  beg  yon  all  and  exhort  you  to  perse- 
vere always  in  this  most  holy  life  and  poverty,  and  take  good  care 
never  to  depart  from  it  upon  the  advice  or  teachings  of  any  one  whom- 
soever." 3 

A  long  shout  of  joy  sounded  up  and  down  all  Italy 
when  the  news  of  his  return  was  heard.  Many  zealous 
brethren  were  already  despairing,  for  persecutions  had 
begun  in  many  provinces  ;  so  when  they  learned  that 
their  spiritual  father  was  alive  and  coming  again  to  visit 

1  Giord.,  14;  Tribul.,  f°  10. 

2  Any  other  date  is  impossible,  since  Francis  in  open  chapter  relin- 
quished the  direction  of  the  Order  in  favor  of  Pietro  di  Catana,  who 
died  March  10,  1221. 

3  This  too  short  fragment  is  found  in  §  vi.  of  the  Rule  of  the  Damian- 
ites  (August  9,  1253):  Speculum.  Morin,  Tract,  iii. .  226b. 


240 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


them  tlieir  joy  was  unbounded.  From  Venice  Francis 
went  to  Bologna.  The  journey  was  marked  by  an  inci- 
dent which  once  more  shows  his  acute  and  wise  goodness. 
Worn  out  as  much  by  emotion  as  by  fatigue,  he  one  day 
found  himself  obliged  to  give  up  finishing  the  journey  on 
foot.  Mounted  upon  an  ass,  he  was  going  on  his  way, 
followed  by  Brother  Leonard  of  Assisi,  when  a  passing 
glance  showed  him  what  was  passing  in  his  companion's 
mind.  "  My  relatives,"  the  friar  was  thinking,  "  would 
have  been  far  enough  from  associating  with  Bernardone, 
and  yet  here  am  I,  obliged  to  follow  his  son  on  foot." 

We  may  judge  of  his  astonishment  when  he  heard 
Francis  saying,  as  he  hastily  dismounted  from  his  beast  : 
"Here,  take  my  place;  it  is  most  unseemly  that  thou 
shouldst  follow  me  on  foot,  who  art  of  a  noble  and  pow- 
erful lineage."  The  unhappy  Leonard,  much  confused, 
threw  himself  at  Francis's  feet,  begging  for  pardon.1 

Scarcely  arrived  at  Bologna,  Francis  was  obliged  to 
proceed  against  those  who  had  become  backsliders.  It 
will  be  remembered  that  the  Order  was  intended  to  pos- 
sess nothing,  either  directly  or  indirectly.  The  monas- 
teries given  to  the  friars  did  not  become  their  property  ; 
so  soon  as  the  proprietor  should  desire  to  take  them  back 
or  anyone  else  should  wish  to  take  possession  of  them, 
they  were  to  be  given  up  without  the  least  resistance  ;  but 
on  drawing  near  to  Bologna  he  learned  that  a  house  was 
being  built,  which  was  already  called  The  -house  of  the 
Brothers.  He  commanded  its  immediate  evacuation,  not 
even  excepting  the  sick  who  happened  to  be  there.  The 
Brothers  then  resorted  to  Ugolini,  who  was  then  in  that 
very  city  for  the  consecration  of  Santa  Maria  di  Rheno.2 
He  explained  to  Francis  at  length  that  this  house  did  not 
belong  to  the  Order  ;  he  had  declared  himself  its  propri- 

1  2  Cel.,  2,  3;  Bon.,  162  ;  cf.  Conform.,  184b,  2.  and  62b,  1. 

2  Sigonius,  Opera,  t.  iii.  col.  220  ;  cf.  Potthast,  5516,  and  6086. 


THE  CRISIS  OF  THE  ORDER 


241 


etor  by  public  acts  ;  and  lie  succeeded  in  convincing 
him.1 

Bolognese  piety  prepared  for  Francis  an  enthusiastic 
reception,  the  echo  of  which  has  come  down  even  to  our 
times  : 

"  I  was  studying  at  Bologna,  I,  Thomas  of  Spalato,  archdeacon  in  the 
cathedral  church  of  that  city,  when  in  the  year  1220,  the  day  of  the  As- 
sumption, I  saw  St.  Francis  preaching  on  the  piazza  of  the  Lesser  Palace, 
before  almost  every  man  in  the  city.  The  theme  of  his  discourse  was 
the  following  :  Angels,  men,  the  demons.  He  spoke  on  all  these  sub- 
jects with  so  much  wisdom  and  eloquence  that  many  learned  men  who 
were  there  were  filled  with  admiration  at  the  words  of  so  plain  a  man. 
Yet  he  had  not  the  manner  of  a  preacher,  his  ways  were  rather  those  of 
conversation  ;  the  substance  of  his  discourse  bore  especially  upon  the 
abolition  of  enmities  and.  the  necessity  of  making  peaceful  alliances. 
His  apparel  was  poor,  his  person  in  no  respect  imposing,  his  face  not  at 
all  handsome  ;  but  God  gave  such  great  efficacy  to  his  words  that  he 
brought  back  to  peace  and  harmony  many  nobles  whose  savage  fury  had. 
not  even  stopped  short  before  the  shedding  of  blood.  So  great  a  devo- 
tion was  felt  for  him  that  men  and.  women  flocked  after  him,  and.  he 
esteemed  himself  happy  who  succeeded,  in  touching  the  hem  of  his  gar- 
ment." 

Was  it  at  this  time  that  the  celebrated  Accurso  the 
Glossarist,2  chief  of  that  famous  dynasty  of  jurisconsults 
who  during  the  whole  thirteenth  century  shed  lustre 
upon  the  University  of  Bologna,  welcomed  the  Brothers 
Minor  to  his  villa  at  Bicardina,  near  the  city?3  We  do 
not  know. 

It  appears  that  another  professor,  Nicolas  dei  Pepoli, 
also  entered  the  Order.4  Naturally  the  pupils  did  not 
lag  behind,  and  a  certain  number  asked  to  receive  the 
habit.  Yet  all  this  constituted  a  danger;  this  city,  which 
in  Italy  was  as  an  altar  consecrated  to  the  science  of  law, 

1  2  Cel.,  3,  4;  Spec.,  11a;  Tribul,  13a;  Conform.,  169b,  2. 

2  Died  in  1229.  Cf.  Mazzetti,  Répertoria  di  tutti  i prqfe&sori  di  Bo- 
logna, Bologna,  1847,  p.  11. 

3  See  Mon.  Germ.  hist.  Script.,  t.  28,  p.  635,  and  the  notes. 

4  Wadding,  ami.  1220,  no.  9.    Cf.  A.  SS.,  p.  823. 

16 


242 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


was  destined  to  exercise  upon  the  evolution  of  the  Order 
the  same  influence  as  Paris  ;  the  Brothers  Minor  could 
no  more  hold  aloof  from  it  than  they  could  keep  aloof 
from  the  ambient  air. 

This  time  Francis  remained  here  but  a  very  short  time. 
An  ancient  tradition,  of  which  his  biographers  have  not 
preserved  any  trace,  but  which  nevertheless  appears  to 
be  entirely  probable,  says  that  Ugolini  took  him  to  pass 
a  month  in  the  Camaldoli,  in  the  retreat  formerly  in- 
habited by  St.  Romuald  in  the  midst  of  the  Casentino 
forest,  one  of  the  noblest  in  Europe,  within  a  few  hours' 
walk  of  the  Verna,  whose  summit  rises  up  gigantic,  over- 
looking the  whole  country. 

We  know  how  much  Francis  needed  repose.  There  is 
no  doubt  that  he  also  longed  for  a  period  of  meditation 
in  order  to  decide  carefully  in  advance  upon  his  line  of 
conduct,  in  the  midst  of  the  dark  conjectures  which  had 
called  him  home.  The  desire  to  give  him  the  much- 
needed  rest  was  only  a  subordinate  purpose  with  Ugolini. 
The  moment  for  vigorous  action  appeared  to  him  to  have 
come.  We  can  easily  picture  his  responses  to  Francis's 
complaints.  Had  he  not  been  seriously  advised  to  prof- 
it by  the  counsels  of  the  past,  by  the  experience  of  those 
founders  of  Orders  who  have  been  not  only  saints  but 
skilful  leaders  of  men  ?  Was  not  Ugolini  himself  his  best 
friend,  his  born  defender,  and  yet  had  not  Francis  forced 
him  to  lay  aside  the  influence  to  which  his  love  for 
the  friars,  his  position  in  the  Church,  and  his  great  age 
gave  him  such  just  title  ?  Yes,  he  had  been  forced  to 
leave  Francis  to  needlessly  expose  his  disciples  to  all 
sorts  of  danger,  to  send  them  on  missions  as  perilous  as 
they  had  proved  to  be  ineffectual,  and  all  for  what  ?  For 
the  most  trivial  point  of  honor,  because  the  Brothers 
Minor  were  determined  not  to  enjoy  the  smallest  privi- 
leges.   The}T  were  not  heretics,  but  they  disturbed  the 


THE  CRISIS  OF  THE  ORDER 


243 


Church  as  much  as  the  heretics  did.  How  many  times 
had  he  not  been  reminded  that  a  great  association,  in 
order  to  exist,  must  have  precise  and  detailed  regula- 
tions? It  had  all  been  labor  lost!  Of  course  Francis's 
humility  was  doubted  by  no  one,  but  why  not  manifest 
it,  not  only  in  costume  and  manner  of  living,  but  in  all 
his  acts  ? .  He  thought  himself  obeying  God  in  defending 
his  own  inspiration,  but  does  not  the  Church  speak  in  the 
name  of  God  ?  Are  not  the  words  of  her  representatives 
the  words  of  Jesus  forever  perpetuated  on  earth?  He 
desired  to  be  a  man  of  the  Gospel,  an  apostolic  man,  but 
was  not  the  best  way  of  becoming  such  to  obey  the 
Roman  pontiff,  the  successor  of  Peter  ?  With  an  excess 
of  condescension  they  had  let  him  go  on  in  his  own  way, 
and  the  result  was  the  saddest  of  lessons.  But  the  situa- 
tion was  not  desperate,  there  was  _  still  time  to  find  a 
remedy  ;  to  do  that  he  had  only  to  throw  himself  at  the 
feet  of  the  pope,  imploring  his  blessing,  his  light,  and  his 
counsel. 

Reproaches  such  as  these,  mingled  with  professions  of 
love  and  admiration  on  the  part  of  the  prelate,  could  not 
but  .profoundly  disturb  a  sensitive  heart  like  that  of 
Francis.  His  conscience  bore  him  good  witness,  but 
with  the  modesty  of  noble  minds  he  was  ready  enough 
to  think  that  he  might  have  made  many  mistakes. 

Perhaps  this  is  the  place  to  ask  what  was  the  secret  of 
the  friendship  of  these  two  men,  so  little  known  to  one 
another  on  certain  sides.  How  could  it  last  without  a 
shadow  down  to  the  very  death  of  Francis,  when  we 
always  find  Ugolini  the  very  soul  of  the  group  who  are 
compromising  the  Franciscan  ideal  ?  Ko  answer  to  this 
question  is  possible.  The  same  problem  presents  itself 
with  regard  to  Brother  Elias,  and  we  are  no  better  able 
to  find  a  satisfactory  answer.  Men  of  loving  hearts 
seldom  have  a  perfectly  clear  intelligence.    They  often 


244 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


become  fascinated  by  men  the  most  different  from  them- 
selves, in  whose  breasts  they  feel  none  of  those  feminine 
weaknesses,  those  strange  dreams,  that  almost  sickly  pity 
for  creatures  and  things,  that  mysterious  thirst  for  pain 
which  is  at  once  their  own  happiness  and  their  torment. 

The  sojourn  at  Camaldoli  was  prolonged  until  the 
middle  of  September,  and  it  ended  to  the  cardinal's 
satisfaction.  Francis  had  decided  to  go  directly  to  the 
pope,  then  at  Orvieto,  with  the  request  that  Ugolini 
should  be  given  him  as  official  protector  intrusted  with 
the  direction  of  the  Order. 

A  dream  which  he  had  once  had  recurred  to  his  mem- 
ory ;  he  had  seen  a  little  black  hen  which,  in  spite  of  her 
efforts,  was  not  able  to  spread  her  wings  over  her  whole 
brood.  The  poor  hen  was  himself,  the  chickens  were 
the  friars.  This  dream  was  a  providential  indication 
commanding  him  to  seek  for  them  a  mother  under  whose 
wings  they  could  all  find  a  place,  and  who  could  defend 
them  against  the  birds  of  prey.    At  least  so  he  thought.1 

He  repaired  to  Orvieto  without  taking  Assisi  in  his 
way,-  since  if  he  went  there  he  would  be  obliged  to  take 
some  measures  against  the  f  omentors  of  disturbance  ;  he 
now  proposed  to  refer  everything  directly  to  the  pope. 

Does  his  profound  humility,  with  the  feeling  of  culpa- 
bility which  Ugolini  had  awakened  in  him,  suffice  to 
explain  his  attitude  with  regard  to  the  pope,  or  must  we 
suppose  that  he  had  a  vague  thought  of  abdicating  ?  Who 
knows  whether  conscience  was  not  already  murmuring 
a  reproach,  and  showing  him  how  trivial  were  all  the 
sophisms  which  had  been  woven  around  him  ? 

"  Not  daring  to  present  himself  in  the  apartments  of  so  great  a  prince, 
he  remained  outside  "before  the  door,  patiently  waiting  till  the  pope  should 
eome  out.    When  he  appeared  St.  Francis  made  a  reverence  and  said  : 


2  Cel..  1,  10;  Spec,  100a-101b. 


THE  CRISIS  OF  THE  ORDER 


245 


'  Father  Pope,  may  God  give  you  peace."  '  May  God  bless  you,  niy  sou,' 
replied  he.  '  My  lord.'  theu  said  St.  Frauds  to  him,  "you  are  great  aud 
ofteu  absorbed  by  great  affairs  ;  poor  friars  can  not  come  aud  talk  with 
you  as  often  as  they  need  to  do  ;  you  have  given  me  many  popes  ;  give 
me  a  single  one  to  whom  I  may  address  myself  when  need  occurs,  and 
who  will  listen  in  your  stead,  and  discuss  my  affairs  aud  those  of  the 
Order.'  "Whom  do  you  wish  I  should  give  you,  my  son  ?'  'The 
Bishop  of  Ostia.'    And  he  gave  him  to  him."  1 

Conferences  with  Ugolini  now  began  again  ;  he  imme- 
diately accorded  Francis  some  amends  ;  the  privilege 
granted  the  Clarisses  was  revoked  ;  Giovanni  di  Con- 
pello  was  informed  that  he  had  nothing  to  hope  from  the 
curia,  and  last  of  all  leave  was  given  to  Francis  hiinself 
to  compose  the  Rule  of  his  Order.  Naturally  he  was  not 
spared  counsel  on  the  subject,  but  there  was  one  point 
upon  which  the  curia  could  not  brook  delay,  and  of  which 
it  exacted  the  immediate  application — the  obligation  of  a 
year's  novitiate  for  the  postulants. 

At  the  same  time  a  bull  was  issued  not  merely  for  the 
sake  of  publishing  this  ordinance,  but  especially  to  mark 
in  a  solemn  manner  the  commencement  of  a  new  era  in 
the  relations  of  the  Church  and  the  Franciscans.  The 
fraternity  of  the  Umbrian  Penitents  became  an  Order  in 
the  strictest  sense  of  the  word. 

Honorius.  bishop,  servant  of  the  servants  of  God,  to  Brother  Francis 
and  the  other  priors  or  custodes  of  the  Brothers  Minor,  greeting  and  the 
apostolic  benediction. 

In  nearly  all  religious  Orders  it  has  been  wisely  ordained  that  those 
who  present  themselves  with  the  purpose  of  observing  the  regular  life 
shall  make  trial  of  it  for  a  certain  time,  during  which  they  also  shall  be 
tested,  in  order  to  leave  neither  place  nor  pretext  for  inconsiderate 
steps.  For  these  reasons  we  command  you  by  these  presents  to  admit 
no  one  to  make  profession  until  after  one  year  of  novitiate  ;  we  forbid 
that  after  profession  any  brother  shall  leave  the  Order,  and  that  any 
one  shall  take  back  again  Mm  who  has  gone  out  from  it.    We  also  for- 


Giord.,  14  ;  cf.  2  Cel.,  1,  17  ;  Spec,  102  ;  3  Soc,  56  aud  03. 


246 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


bid  that  those  wearing  your  habit  shall  circulate  here  and  there  with- 
out obedience,  lest  the  purity  of  your  poverty  be  corrupted.  If  any 
friars  have  had  this  audacity,  you  will  inflict  upon  them  ecclesiastical 
censures  until  repentance.1 

It  is  surely  only  by  a  very  decided  euphemism  that 
such  a  bull  can  be  considered  in  the  light  of  a  privilege. 
It  was  in  reality  the  laying  of  the  strong  hand  of  the 
papacy  upon  the  Brothers  Minor. 

From  this  time,  in  the  very  nature  of  things  it  became 
impossible  for  Francis  to  remain  minister-general.  He 
felt  it  himself.  Heart-broken,  soul-sick,  he  -would  fain, 
in  spite  of  all,  have  found  in  the  energy  of  his  love  those 
words,  those  glances  which  up  to  this  time  had  taken  the 
place  of  rule  or  constitution,  giving  to  his  earliest  com- 
panions the  intuition  of  what  they  ought  to  do  and  the 
strength  to  accomplish  it  ;  but  an  administrator  was 
^needed  at  the  head  of  this  family  which  he  suddenly 
found  to  be  so  different  from  what  it  had  been  a  few 
years  before,  and  he  sadly  acknowledged  that  he  himself 
was  not  in  the  slightest  degree  such  a  person.2 

Ah,  in  his  own  conscience  he  well  knew  that  the  old 
ideal  was  the  true,  the  right  one  ;  but  he  drove  away 
such  thoughts  as  the  temptations  of  pride.  The  recent 
events  had  not  taken  place  without  in  some  degree  weak- 
ening his  moral  personality  ;  from  being  continually 
talked  to  about  obedience,  submission,  humility,  a  certain 
obscurity  had  come  over  this  luminous  soul  ;  inspiration 
no  longer  came  to  it  with  the  certainty  of  other  days  ; 

1  Cum  secundum.  The  original  is  at  Assisi  with  Datum  apud  Urbem 
Veterem  X:  liai.  Oct.  pant,  nostri  anno quinto  (September  22,  1220).  It 
is  therefore  by  an  error  that  Sbaralea  and  Wadding  make  it  date  from 
Viterbo,  which  is  the  less  explicable  that  all  the  bulls  of  this  epoch  are 
dated  from  Orvieto.  Wadding,  ami.  1220,  57  ;  Sbaralea,  vol.  i.,  p.  G  ; 
Potthast,  65G1. 

9  2  Cel.,  3,  118  ;  libertin,  Arbor.  V.,2;  Spec,  26  ;  50  ;  130b  ;  Con- 
form., 136a,  2;  143a,  2. 


THE  CRISIS  OF  THE  ORDER 


247 


the  prophet  had  begun  to  waver,  almost  to  doubt  of  him- 
self and  of  his  mission.  Anxiously  he  searched  himself 
to  see  if  in  the  beginning  of  his  work  there  had  not 
been  some  vain  s  elf- complacency.  He  pictured  to  him- 
self beforehand  the  chapter  which  he  was  about  to 
open,  the  attack,  the  criticisms  of  which  it  would  be  the 
object,  and  labored  to  convince  himself  that  if  he  did  not 
endure  them  with  joy  he  was  not  a  true  Brother  Minor.1 
The  noblest  virtues  are  subject  to  scruples,  that  of  per- 
fect humility  more  than  any  other,  and  thus  it  is  that  ex- 
cellent men  religiously  betray  their  own  convictions  to 
avoid  asserting  themselves.  He  resolved  then  to  put  the 
direction  of  the  Order  into  the  hands  of  Pietro  di  Catana. 
It  is  evident  that  there  was  nothing  spontaneous  in  this 
decision,  and  the  fact  that  this  brother  was  a  doctor  of 
laws  and  belonged  to  the  nobility  squarely  argues  the 
transformation  of  the  Franciscan  institute. 

It  is  not  known  whether  or  not  Ugolini  was  present  at 
the  chapter  of  September  29,  1220,  but  if  he  was  not 
there  in  person  he  was  assuredly  represented  by  some 
prelate,  charged  to  watch  over  the  debates.'2  The  bull 
which  had  been  issued  a  week  before  was  communicated 
to  the  friars,  to  whom  Francis  also  announced  that  he 
was  about  to  elaborate  a  new  Rule.  With  reference  to 
this  matter  there  were  conferences  in  which  the  ministers 
alone  appear  to  have  had  a  deliberative  voice.  At  these 
conferences  the  essential  points  of  the  new  Rule  were 
settled  as  to  principle,  leaving  to  Francis  the  care  of 
giving  them  proper  form  at  his  leisure.  Nothing  better 
reveals  the  demoralized  state  into  which  he  had  fallen 
than  the  decision  which  was  taken  to  drop  out  one  of  the 
essential  passages  of  the  old  Rule,  one  of  his  three  fun- 

1  2  Cel.,  3,  83  ;  Bon.  77.  One  should  read  this  account  in  the  Conform. 
according  to  the  Antiqua  Legenda,  142a,  2  ;  31a,  1  ;  Spec,  43b. 

2  TribuL  Laur.  MS. ,  12b  ;  Magi.  MS. ,  71b. 


248 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


damental  precepts,  that  which  began  with  these  words, 
"  Carry  nothing  with  you."1 

How  did  they  go  to  work  to  obtain  from  Francis  this 
concession  which,  a  little  while  before,  he  would  have 
looked  upon  as  a  denial  of  his  call,  a  refusal  to  accept  in  its 
integrity  the  message  which  Jesus  had  addressed  to  him  ? 
It  is  the  secret  of  history,  but  we  may  suppose  there  was 
in  his  life  at  this  time  one  of  those  moral  tempests  which 
overbear  the  faculties  of  the  strongest,  leaving  in  their 
wounded  hearts  only  an  unutterable  pain. 

Something  of  this  pain  has  passed  into  the  touching 
narrative  of  his  abdication  which  the  biographers  have 
given  us. 

"From  henceforth,"  he  said  to  the  friars,  "  I  am  dead  for  you,  but 
here  is  Brother  Pietro  di  Catana,  whom  you  and  I  will  all  obey."  And 
prostrating  himself  before  him  he  promised  him  obedience  and  submis- 
sion. The  friars  could  not  restrain  their  tears  and  lamentations  when 
they  saw  themselves  thus  becoming  in  some  sort  orphans,  but  Francis 
arose,  and,  clasping  his  hands,  with  eyes  upraised  to  heaven  :  "  Lord," 
he  said,  "I  return  to  thee  this  family  which  thou  hast  confided  to  me. 
Now,  as  thou  knowest,  most  sweet  Jesus,  I  have  no  longer  strength  nor 
ability  to  keep  on  caring  for  them  -,  I  confide  them,  therefore,  to  the 
ministers.  May  they  be  responsible  before  thee  at  the  day  of  judg- 
ment if  any  brother,  by  their  negligence  or  bad  example,  or  by  a  too 
severe  discipline,  should  ever  wander  away."  2 

The  functions  of  Pietro  di  Catana  were  destined  to 
continue  but  a  very  short  time  ;  he  died  on  March  10, 
1221.3 

Information  abounds  as  to  this  period  of  a  few  months  ; 

1  Luke,  ix.,  1-6.  Tribul. ,  12b  :  Etfecerunt  de  régula  prima  ministri  re- 
movere.  .  .  .  This  must  have  taken  place  at  the  chapter  of  Sep- 
tember 29,  1220,  since  the  suppression  is  made  in  the  Rule  of  1221. 

2 2  Cel.,  3,  81  ;  Spec,  26  ;  Conform.,  175b,  1  ;  53a  ;  Bon.,  76  ;  A. 
SS. ,  p.  620. 

3  The  epitaph  on  his  tomb,  which  still  exists  at  S.  M.  dei  Angeli  bears 
this  date  :  see  Portiuncula,  von  P.  Barnabas  aus  dem  Elsass,  Rixheim, 
1884,  p.  11.    Cf.  A.  SS.,  p.  630. 


THE  CRISIS  OF  THE  ORDER 


249 


nothing  is  more  natural,  since  Francis  remained  at  Por- 
tiuncula  to  complete  the  task  confided  to  him,  living  there 
surrounded  with  brethren  who  later  on  would  recall  to 
mind  all  the  incidents  of  which  they  were  witnesses. 
Some  of  them  reveal  the  conflict  of  which  his  soul  was 
the  arena.  Desirous  of  showing  himself  submissive,  he 
nevertheless  found  himself  tormented  by  the  desire  to 
shake  off  his  chains  and  fly  away  as  in  former  days,  to 
live  and  breathe  in  God  alone.  The  following  artless 
record  deserves,  it  seems  to  me,  to  be  better  known.1 

One  day  a  novice  who  could  read  the  psalter,  though  not  without  dif- 
ficulty, obtained  from  the  minister  general— that  is  to  say,  from  the  vicar 
of  St.  Francis— permission  to  have  one.  But  as  he  had  learned  that  St. 
Francis  desired  the  brethren  to  be  covetous  neither  for  learning  nor  for 
books,  he  would  not  take  his  psalter  without  his  consent.  So,  St.  Fran- 
cis having  come  to  the  monastery  where  the  novice  was,  "Father*' 
said  he,  '  '  it  would  be  a  great  consolation  to  have  a  psalter  ;  but  though 
the  minister-general  has  authorized  me  to  get  it,  I  would  not  have  it 
unknown  to  you.''  "  Look  at  the  Emperor  Charles  "  replied  St.  Francis 
with  fire,  "  Roland,  and  Oliver  and  all  the  paladins,  valorous  heroes 
and  gallant  knights,  who  gained  their  famous  victories  in  fighting  in- 
fidels, in  toiling  and  laboring  even  unto  death!  The  holy  martyrs, 
they  also  have  chosen  to  die  in  the  midst  of  battle  for  the  faith  of 
Christ  !  But  now  there  are  many  of  those  who  aspire  to  merit  honor 
and  glory  simply  by  relating  their  feats.  Yes,  among  us  also  there  are 
many  who  expect  to  receive  glory  and  honor  by  reciting  and  preaching 
the  works  of  the  saints,  as  if  they  had  done  them  themselves  !  " 

.  .  .  A  few  days  after,  St.  Francis  was  sitting  before  the  fire,  and 
the  novice  drew  near  to  speak  to  him  anew  about  his  psalter. 

"When  you  have  your  psalter,"  said  Francis  to  him,  "you  will  want 
a  breviary,  and  when  you  have  a  breviary  you  will  seat  yourself  in  a 
pulpit  like  a  great  prelate  and  will  beckon  to  your  companion,  '  Bring 
me  my  breviary  !  '  " 

St.  Francis  said  this  with  great  vivacity,  then  taking  up  some  ashes 
he  scattered  them  over  the  head  of  the  novice,  repeating,  '  '  There  is 
the  breviary,  there  is  the  breviary  !  " 

Several  days  after,  St.  Francis  being  at  Portiuncula  and  walking  up 

1  Spec  ,  9b  ;  Arbor.  V.,  3  ;  Conform,,  170a,  1  ;  2  Cel.,  3,  124.  Cf. 
Ubertini,  ArcJriv.,  iii.,  pp.  75  and  177. 


250 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


and  down  on  the  roadside  not  far  from  his  cell,  the  same  Brother  came 
again  to  speak  to  him  about  his  psalter.  "Very  well,  go  on,"  said 
Francis  to  him,  "  you  have  only  to  do  what  your  minister  tells  you."  At 
these  words  the  novice  went  away,  but  Francis  began  to  reflect  on  what 
he  had  said,  and  suddenly  calling  to  the  friar,  cried, £k  Wait  for  me  ! 
wait  for  me  !  "  When  he  had  caught  up  to  him,  "Retrace  your  steps 
a  little  way,  I  beg  you,"  he  said.  "  Where  was  I  when  I  told  you  to 
do  whatever  your  minister  told  you  as  to  the  psalter  ?  "  Then  falling 
upon  his  knees  on  the  spot  pointed  out  by  the  friar,  he  prostrated  him- 
self at  his  feet:  "Pardon,  my  brother,  pardon!  "  he  cried,  "  for  he 
who  would  be  Brother  Minor  ought  to  have  nothing  but  his  clothing." 

•  This  long  story  is  not  merely  precious  because  it  shows 
us,  even  to  the  smallest  particular,  the  conflict  between 
the  Francis  of  the  early  years,  looking  only  to  God  and 
his  conscience,  and  the  Francis  of  1220,  become  a  sub- 
missive monk  in  an  Order  approved  by  the  Roman 
Church,  but  also  because  it  is  one  of  those  infrequent 
narratives  where  his  method  shows  itself  with  its  artless 
realism.  These  allusions  to  the  tales  of  chivalry,  and 
this  freedom  of  manner  which  made  a  part  of  his  success 
with  the  masses,  were  eliminated  from  the  legend  with 
an  incredible  rapidity.  His  spiritual  sons  were  perhaps 
not  ashamed  of  their  father  in  this  matter,  but  they  were 
so  bent  upon  bringing  out  his  other  qualities  that  they 
forgot  a  little  too  much  the  poet,  the  troubadour,  the 
joculator  Domini. 

Certain  fragments,  later  than  Thomas  of  Celano  by 
more  than  a,  century,  wdiich  relate  some  incidents  of  this 
kind,  bear  for  that  very  reason  the  stamp  of  authenticity. 

It  is  difficult  enough  to  ascertain  precisely  what  part 
Francis  still  took  in  the  direction  of  the  Order.  Pietro 
di  Catana  and  later  Brother  Elias  are  sometimes  called 
ministers-general,  sometimes  vicars  ;  the  two  terms  often 
occur  successively,  as  in  the  preceding  narrative.  It  is 
very  probable  that  this  confusion  of  terms  corresponds 
to  a  like  confusion  of  facts.    Perhaps  it  was  even  in ten- 


THE  CRISIS  OF  THE  ORDER 


251 


tional.  After  the  chapter  of  September,  1220,  the  affairs 
of  the  Order  pass  into  the  hands  of  him  whom  Francis 
had  called-minister-general,  though  the  friars  as  well  as 
the  papacy  gave  him  only  the  title  of  vicar.  It  was 
essential  for  the  popularity  of  the  Brothers  Minor  that 
Francis  should  preserve  an  appearance  of  authority,  but 
the  reality  of  government  had  slipped  from  his  hands. 

The  ideal  which  he  had  borne  in  his  body  until  li_09 
and  had  then  given  birth  to  in  anguish,  was  now  taking 
its  flight,  like  those  sons  of  our  loins  whom  we  see  sud- 
denly leaving  us  without  our  being  able  to  help  it,  since 
that  is  life,  yet  not  without  a  rending  of  our  vitals.  Ma- 
ter dolorosa  !  Ah,  no  doubt  they  will  come  back  again, 
and  seat  themselves  piously  beside  us  at  the  paternal 
hearth  ;  perhaps  even,  in  some  hour  of  moral  distress, 
they  will  feel  the  need  of  taking  refuge  in  their  mother's 
arms  as  in  the  old  days  ;  but  these  fleeting  returns,  with 
their  feverish  haste,  only  reopen  the  wounds  of  the  poor 
parents,  when  they  see  how  the  children  hasten  to  depart 
again — they  who  bear  their  name  but  belong  to  them  no 
longer. . 


CHAPTEK  XV 


THE  RULE  OF  1221 1 


The  winter  of  1220-1221  was  spent  by  Francis  chiefly 
in  fixing  his  thought  by  writing.  Until  iioav  he  had  been 
too  much  the  man  of  action  to  have  been  able  to  give 
much  thought  to  anything  but  the  living  ivord,  but  from 
this  time  his  exhausted  forces  compelled  him  to  satisfy 
his  longing  for  souls  by  some  other  means  than  evangel- 
izing tours.    We  have  seen  that  the  chapter  of  Septem- 

1  Text  in  Firmamentum,  10  ;  Spec,  189  ;  Sjiec,  Morin.  Tract.,  iii.,  2b. 
M.  Millier  (Anfànge)  has  made  a  study  of  the  Rule  of  1221  which  is  a 
masterpiece  of  e.vegeticid  scent.  Nevertheless  if  he  had  more  carefully 
collated  the  different  texts  he  would  have  arrived  at  still  more  striking 
results,  thanks  to  the  variants  which  he  would  have  been  able  to  estab- 
lish    I  cite  a  single  example. 

Text  Firm. — Wadding,  adopted  by 
Mr.  M. 

0 nines  fratres  ubicunque  sunt  tel 
mdunt,  caveant  sibi  a  malo  visu  et  \  vadunt  caveant  se  a  malo  visu  etfre- 
frequentia  midierum  et  nuUus  cum  ;  quentia  muHerum  et  nidlus  cum  eis 
eis  condlietur  solus.  Sacerdos  ho-  con cilietur  ant  per  viam  vadat  solus 
neste  loquatur  cum  eis  dando  pen-  j  aut  ad  mensam  in  una  paropside 
itentiam  vel  aliud  spirit aale  con- \  comedat.  (//)  Sacerdos  Iwneste  lo- 
sUiam.  I  quatur  cum  eis  dando  .   .    .  etc. 

This  passage  is  sufficient  to  show  the  superiority  of  the  text  of  the 
Speculum,  which  is  to  be  preferred  also  in  other  respects,  but  this  is 
not  the  place  for  entering  into  these  details.  It  is  evident  that  the 
phrase  in  which  we  see  the  earliest  friars  sometimes  sharing  the  repast 
of  the  sisters  and  eating  from  their  porringer  is  not  a  later  interpolation. 


Text  of  the  Speculum,  189  ff. 
Omnes  fratres  ubicunque  sunt  i 


THE  KULE  OF  1221  253 


ber  29,  1220,  on  one  side,  and  the  bull  Cum  secundum  on 
the  other,  had  fixed  in  advance  a  certain  number  of 
points.  For  the  rest,  complete  liberty  had  been  given 
him,  not  indeed  to  make  a  final  and  unchangeable  state- 
ment of  his  ideas,  but  to  set  them  forth.  The  substance 
of  legislative  power  had  passed  into  the  hands  of  the 
ministers.1 

That  which  we  call  the  Rule  of  1221  is,  then,  nothing 
more  than  a  proposed  law,  submitted  to  a  representative 
government  at  its  parliament.  The  head  of  authority 
will  one  day  give  it  to  the  world,  so  thoroughly  modified 
and  altered  that  Francis's  name  at  the  head  of  such  a 
document  will  give  bnt  small  promise,  .and  quite  indi- 
rectly, that  it  will  contain  his  personal  opinion. 

Never  Avas  manTess  capable  of  making  a  Rule  than 
Francis.  In  reality,  that  of  1210  and  the  one  which  the 
pope  solemnly  approved  in  November  29,  1223,  had  little 
in  common  except  the  name.  In  the  former  all  is  alive, 
free,  spontaneous  ;  it  is  a  point  of  departure,  an  inspira- 
tion ;  it  may  be  summed  up  in  two  phrases  :  the  appeal 
of  Jesus  to  man,  "Come,  follow  me,"  the  act  of  man,  "He 
left  all  and  followed  him."  To  the  call  of  divine  love 
man  replies  by  the  joyful  gift  of  himself,  and  that  quite 
naturally,  by  a  sort  of  instinct.  At  this  height  of  mysti- 
cism any  regulation  is  not  only  useless,  it  is  almost  a 
profanation  ;  at  the  very  least  it  is  the  symptom  of  a 
doubt.  Even  in  earthly  loves,  when  people  truly  love 
each  other  nothing  is  asked,  nothing  promised. 

The  Rule  of  1223,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  reciprocal 
contract.  On  the  divine  side  the  call  has  become  a  com- 
mand ;  on  the  human,  the  free  impulse  of  love  has  become 
an  act  of  submission,  by  which  life  eternal  will  be  earned. 

At  the  bottom  of  it  all  is  the  antinome  of  law  and  love. 
Under  the  reign  of  law  we  are  the  mercenaries  of  God, 
1  Tribu!.,  12b  ;  Spec  .  54b  ;  Arbor.  V.  °  •  c—  8b. 


254 


X.IFE  OF  ST.  FRATTCIS 


bound  down  to  an  irksome  task,  but  paid  a  hundred-fold, 
and  with  an  indisputable  right  to  our  wages. 

Under  the  rule  of  love  we  are  the  sons  of  God,  and 
coworkers  with  him  ;  we  give  ourselves  to  him  without 
bargaining  and  without  expectation  ;  we  follow  Jesus,  not 
because  this  is  well,  but  because  we  can  do  no  otherwise, 
because  we  feel  that  he  has  loved  us  and  we  love  him  in 
our  turn.  An  inward  flame  draws  us  irresistibly  toward 
him:  Et  Spiriius  et  Sponsa  dicunt:  Veni. 

It  is  necessary  to  dwell  a  little  on  the  antithesis  be- 
tween these  two  Rules.  That  of  1210  alone  is  truly  Fran- 
ciscan ;  that  of  1223  is  indirectly  the  work  of  the 
Church,  endeavoring  to  assimilate  with  herself  the  new 
movement,  which  with  one  touch  she  transforms  and 
turns  wholly  from  its  original  purpose. 

That  of  1221  marks  an  intermediate  stage.  It  is 
the  clash  of  two  principles,  or  rather  of  two  spirits  ;  they 
approach,  they  touch,  but  they  are  not  merged  in  one 
another  ;  here  and  there  is  a  mixture,  but  nowdiere  com- 
bination; we  can  separate  the  divers  elements  without 
difficulty.  Their  condition  is  the  exact  reflection  of  what 
was  going  on  in  Francis's  soul,  and  of  the  rapid  evolution 
of  the  Order. 

To  aid  him  in  his  work  Francis  joined  to  himself 
Brother  Cresar  of  Speyer,  Avho  would  be  especially  useful 
to  him  by  his  profound  acquaintance  with  the  sacred 
texts. 

What  strikes  us  first,  on  glancing  over  this  Rule  of 
1221,  is  its  extraordinary  length  ;  it  covers  not  less  than 
ten  folio  pages,  while  that  of  1223  has  no  more  than 
three.  Take  away  from  it  the  passages  which  ema- 
nate from  the  papacy  and  those  which  were  fixed  at  the 
previous  chapter,  you  will  hardly  have  shortened  it  by  a 
column  ;  what  remains  is  not  a  Rule,  but  a  series  of  im- 
passioned appeals,  in  which  the  father's  heart  speaks,  not 


THE  RULE  OF  1221 


255 


to  command  but  to  convince,  to  touch,  to  awaken  in  his 
children  the  instinct  of  love. 

It  is  all  chaotic  and  even  contradictory,1  without  order, 
a  medley  of  outbursts  of  joy  and  bitter  sobs,  of  hopes 
and  regrets.  There  are  passages  in  which  the  passion 
of  the  soul  speaks  in  every  possible  tone,  runs  over  the 
whole  gamut  from  the  softest  note  to  the  most  masculine, 
from  those  which  are  as  joyous  and  inspiring  as  the  blast 
of  a  clarion,  to  those  which  are  agitated,  stifled,  like  a 
voice  from  beyond  the  tomb. 

"  By  tlie  holy  love  which  is  m  God,  I  pray  all  the  friars,  ministers 
as  well  as  others,  to  put  aside  every  obstacle,  every  care,  every  anx- 
iety, that  they  may  be  able  to  consecrate  themselves  entirely  to  serve, 
love,  and  honor  the  Lord  God,  with  a  pure  heart  and  a  sincere  purpose, 
which  is  what  he  asks  above  all  things.  Let  us  have  always  in  our- 
selves a  tabernacle  and  a  home  for  him  who  is  the  Lord  God  most 
mighty,  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit,  who  says.  '  Watch  and  pray  al- 
ways, that  you  may  be  found  worthy  to  escape  all  the  things  which  will 
come  to  pass,  and  to  appear  upright  before  the  Son  of  man.' 

'*  Let  us  then  keep  in  the  true  way,  the  life,  the  truth,  and  the  holy 
Gospel  of  Him  who  has  deigned  for  our  sake  to  leave  his  Father  that 
he  may  manifest  his  name  to  us,  saying,  'Father,  I  Lave  manifested 
thy  name  to  those  whom  thou  hast  given  me,  and  the  words  which 
thou  hast  given  me  I  have  given  also  unto  them.  They  have  received 
them,  and  they  have  known  that  I  am  come  from  thee,  and  they  believe 
that  thou  hast  sent  me.  I  pray  for  them;  I  pray  not  for  the  world, 
but  for  those  whom  thou  hast  given  me.  that  they  may  be  one  as  we 
are  one.  .  I  have  said  these  things,  being  still  in  the  world,  that  they 
may  have  joy  in  themselves.  I  have  given  them  thy  words,  and  the 
world  hath  hated  them,  because  they  are  not  of  the  world.'  I  pray  not 
that  thou  shouldst  take  them  out  of  the  world,  but  that  thou  wilt  keep 
them  from  the  evil.  Sanctify  them  through  the  truth  :  thy  word  is 
truth.  As  thou  hast  sent  me  into  the  world  I  have  also  sent  them  into 
the  world,  and  for  their  sake  I  sanctify  myself  that  they  may  them- 
selves be  sanctified  in  the  truth  ;  and  neither  pray  I  for  these  alone, 
but  for  all  those  who  shall  believe  on  me  through  their  words,  that  we 
all  may  be  one.  and  that  the  world  may  know  that  thou  hast  sent  me, 
and  that  thou  lovest  them  as  thou  hast  loved  me.    I  have  made  known 


1  Cf.  cap.  17  and  21. 


256 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


unto  them  thy  name,  that  the  love  wherewith  thou  hast  loved  me  may- 
be in  them  and  I  in  them.' 

PRAYER. 

"  Almighty,  most  high  and  sovereign  God,  holy  Father,  righteous 
Lord,  King  of  heaven  and  earth,  we  give  thee  thanks  for  thine  own 
sake,  in  that  by  thy  holy  "will,  and  by  thine  only  Son  and  thy  Holy 
Spirit  thou  hast  created  all  things  spiritual  and  corporeal,  and  that  after 
having  made  us  in  thine  image  and  after  thy  likeness,  thou  didst  place 
us  in  that  paradise  which  we  lost  by  our  sin.  And  we  give  thee  thanks 
because  after  having  created  us  by  thy  Son,  by  that  love  which  is  thine, 
and  which  thou  hast  had  for  us,  thou  hast  made  him  to  be  born  very 
God  and  very  man  of  the  glorious  and  blessed  Mary,  ever  Virgin, 
and  because  by  his  cross,  his  blood,  and  his  death  thou  hast  willed  to 
ransom  us  poor  captives.  And  we  give  thee  thanks  that  thy  Son  is  to 
return  in  his  glorious  majesty  to  send  to  eternal  fire  the  accursed  ones,, 
those  who  have  not  repented  and  have  not  known  thee  ;  and  to  say  to 
those  who  have  known  and  adored  thee  and  served  thee  by  repent- 
ance, 1  Come,  ye  blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit  the  kingdom  prepared 
for  you  from  before  the  foundation  of  the  world.'  And  since  we, 
wretched  and  sinful,  are  not  worthy  to  name  thee,  we  humbly  ask  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  thy  well-beloved  Son,  in  whom  thou  art  well  pleased, 
that  he  may  give  thee  thanks  for  everything  ;  and  also  the  Holy 
Spirit,  the  Paraclete,  as  it  may  please  thee  and  them  ;  for  this  we  suppli- 
cate him  who  has  all  power  with  thee,  and  by  whom  thou  hast  done 
such  great  things  for  us.  Alleluia. 

"  And  we  pray  the  glorious  Mother,  the  blessed  Mary,  ever  Virgin, 
St.  Michael,  Gabiiel,  Raphael,  and  all  the  choir  of  blessed  Spirits,  Sera- 
phim, Cherubim,  Thrones,  Dominions,  Principalities  and  Powers,  Vir- 
tues and  Angels,  Archangels,  John  the  Baptist,  John  the  Evangelist, 
Peter,  Paul,  and  the  holy  Patriarchs,  the  Prophets,  the  Holy  Innocents, 
Apostles,  Evangelists,  Disciples,  Martyrs.  Confessors,  Virgins,  the 
blessed  ones,  Elijah  and  Enoch,  and  all  the  saints  who  have  been,  shall 
be,  and  are,  we  humbly  pray  them  by  thy  love  to  give  thee  thanks  for 
these  things,  as  it  pleases  thee,  sovereign,  true,  eternal  and  living  God, 
and  a'so  to  thy  Son,  our  most  holy  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  the  Holy 
Spirit,  the  Comforter,  forever  and  ever.    Amen.  Alleluia. 

"And  we  supplicate  all  those  who  desire  to  serve  the  Lord  God,  in 
the  bosom  of  the  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Church,  all  priests,  deacons, 
sub  deacons,  acolytes  and  exorcists,  readers,  porters,  all  clerks,  all 
monks  and  nuns,  all  children  and  little  ones,  paupers  and  exiles,  kings, 
and  princes,  workmen  and  laborers,  servants  and  masters,  the  virgins, 
the  continent  and  the  married,  laics,  men  and  women,  all  children, 
youths,  young  men  and  old  men,  the  sick  and  the  well,  the  small 


THE  RULE  OF  1221 


2Ô7 


and  the  great,  the  peoples  of  every  tribe  and  tongue  and  nation,  all 
men  in  every  part  of  the  world  whatsoever,  who  are  or  who  shall  be, 
we  pray  and  beseech  them,  all  we  Brothers  Minor,  unprofitable  servants, 
that  all  together,  with  one  accord  we  persevere  in  the  true  faith  and 
in  penitence,  for  outside  of  these  no  person  can  be  saved. 

"Let  us  all.  with  all  our  heart  and  all  our  thought,  and  all  our 
strength,  and  all  our  mind,  with  all  our  vigor,  with  all  our  effort,  with 
all  our  affection,  with  all  our  inward  powers,  our  desires,  and  our  wills, 
love  the  Lord  God,  -who  has  given  to  us  all  his  body,  all  his  soul,  all  his 
life,  and  .still  gives  them  every  day  to  each  one  of  us.  He  created  us, 
he  saved  us  by  his  grace  alone  ;  he  has  been,  he  still  is,  full  of  good- 
ness to  us,  us  wicked  and  worthless,  corrupt  and  offensive,  ungrateful, 
ignorant,  bad.  We  desire  nothing  else,  we  wish  for  nothing  else  ;  may 
nothing  else  please  us,  or  have  any  attraction  for  us,  except  the  Creator, 
the  Redeemer,  the  Saviour,  sole  and  true  God,  who  is  full  of  goodness, 
who  is  all  goodness,  who  is  the  true  and  supreme  good,  who  alone  is 
kind,  pious,  and  merciful,  gracious,  sweet,  and  gentle,  who  alone  is  holy, 
righteous,  true,  upright,  who  alone  has  benignity,  innocence,  and  purity  ; 
of  whom,  by  whom,  and  in  whom  is  all  the  pardon,  all  the  grace,  all 
the  glory  of  all  penitents,  of  all  the  righteous  and  ail  the  saints  who 
are  rejoicing  in  heaven. 

uThen  let  nothing  again  hinder,  let  nothing  again  separate,  nothing 
again  retard  us,  and  may  we  all,  so  long  as  we  live,  in  every  place,  at 
every  hour,  at  every  time,  every  day  and  unceasingly,  truly  and 
humbly  believe.  Let  us  have  in  our  hearts,  let  us  love,  adore,  serve, 
praise,  bless,  glorify,  exalt,  magnify,  thank  the  most  high,  sovereign, 
eternal  God,  Trinity  and  Unity,  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit,  Creator 
of  all  men,  both  of  those  who  believe  and  hope  in  him  and  of  those 
who  love  him.  He  is  without  beginning  and  without  end,  immutable 
and  invisible,  ineffable,  incomprehensible,  indiscernible,  blessed,  lauded, 
glorious,  exalted,  sublime,  most  high,  sweet,  lovely,  delectable,  and 
always  worthy  of  being  desired  above  all  things,  in  all  the  ages  of  ages. 
Amen." 

Have  not  these  artless  repetitions  a  mysterious  charm 
which  steals  deliriously  into  the  very  depths  of  the  heart  ? 
Is  there  not  in  them  a  sort  of  sacrament  of  which  the 
words  are  only  the  rude  vehicle?  Francis  is  taking 
refuge  in  God,  as  the  child  throws  itself  upon  its  mother's 
bosom,  and  in  the  incoherence  of  its  weakness  and  its  joy 
stammers  out  all  the  words  it  knows,  repeating  by  them 
all  only  the  eternal  "  I  am  thine  "  of  love  and  faith. 
17 


258 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FEANCIS 


There  is  in  them  also  something  which  recalls,  not 
only  by  citations,  but  still  more  by  the  very  inspiration 
of  the  thought,  that  which  we  call  the  sacerdotal  prayer 
of  Christ.  The  apostle  of  poverty  appears  here  as  if 
suspended  between  earth  and  heaven  by  the  very  strength 
of  his  love,  consecrated  the  priest  of  a  new  worship  by 
the  inward  and  irresistible  unction  of  the  Spirit.  He 
does  not  offer  sacrifice  like  the  priest  of  the  past  time  ; 
he  sacrifices  himself,  and  carries  in  his  body  all  the  woes 
of  humanity. 

The  more  beautiful  are  these  words  from  the  mystical 
point  of  view,  the  less  do  they  correspond  with  what  is 
expected  in  a  Rule  ;  they  have  neither  the  precision  nor 
the  brief  and  imperative  forms  of  one.  The  transforma- 
tions which  they  were  to  undergo  in  order  to  become  the 
code  of  1223  were  therefore  fatal  when  we  consider  the 
definitive  intervention  of  the  Church  of  Rome  to  direct 
the  Franciscan  movement. 

It  is  probable  that  this  rough  draft  of  a  Rule,  such  as 
we  have  it  now,  is  that  which  was  distributed  in  the 
chapter  of  Whitsunday,  1221.  The  variants,  sometimes 
capital,  which  are  found  in  the  different  texts,  can  be 
nothing  other  than  outlines  of  the  corrections  proposed 
by  the  provincial  ministers.  Once  admit  the  idea  of 
considering  this  document  as  a  rough  draft,  we  are  very 
soon  brought  to  think  that  it  had  already  undergone  a 
rapid  preliminary  revision,  a  sort  of  pruning,  in  which 
ecclesiastical  authority  has  caused  to  disappear  all  that 
was  in  flagrant  contradiction  with  its  own  projects  for 
the  Order. 

If  it  is  asked,  who  could  have  made  these  curtailments, 
one  name  springs  at  once  to  our  lips — Ugolini.  He  crit- 
icised its  exaggerated  proportions,  its  want  of  unity  and 
precision.  Later  on  it  is  related  that  Francis  had  seen 
in  a  dream  a  multitude  of  starving  friars,  and  himself 


THE  EULE  OF  1221 


259 


unable  to  satisfy  their  wants,  because  though  all  around 
liiin  lay  innumerable  crumbs  of  bread,  they  disappeared 
between  his  fingers  when  he  would  give  them  to  those 
about  him.  Then  a  voice  from  heaven  said  to  him  : 
"Francis,  make  of  these  crumbs  a  wafer;  with  that  thou 
shalt  feed  these  starving  ones.  " 

There  is  little  hazard  in  assuming  that  this  is  the  pict- 
uresque echo  of  the  conferences  which  took  place  at  this 
time  between  Francis  and  the  cardinal  ;  the  latter  might 
have  suggested  to  him  by  such  a  comparison  the  es- 
sential defects  of  his  project.  All  this,  no  doubt,  took 
place  during  Francis's  stay  in  Piome,  in  the  beginning 
of  1221. 

Before  going  there,  we  must  cast  a  glance  over  the 
similarity  in  inspiration  and  even  in  style  which  allies 
the  Rule  of  1221  with  another  of  St.  Francis's  works, 
that  which  is  known  under  the  title  of  The  Admonitions.2 
This  is  a  series  of  spiritual  counsels  with  regard  to  the 
religious  life  ;  it  is  closely  united  both  in  matter  and  form 
with  the  work  which  we  have  just  examined.  The  tone  of 
voice  is  so  perfectly  the  same  that  one  is  tempted  to  see 
in  it  parts  of  the  original  draft  of  the  Eule,  separated 
from  it  as  too  prolix  to  find  place  in  a  Rule. 

However  it  may  be  with  this  hypothesis,  we  find  in 
The  Admonitions  all  the  anxieties  with  which  the  soul 
of  Francis  was  assailed  in  this  uncertain  and  troubled 
hour.  Some  of  these  counsels  sound  like  bits  from  a 
private  journal.  We  see  him  seeking,  with  the  simplicity 
of  perfect  humility,  for  reasons  for  submitting  himself, 
renouncing  his  ideas,  and  not  quite  succeeding  in  finding 
them.  He  repeats  to  himself  the  exhortations  that  others 
had  given  him  ;  we  feel  the  effort  to  understand  and  ad- 

»  2  Cel.,  3,  136. 

2  See  below,  p.  354.  text  in  the  Firmamentum,  19  ff.  ;  Speculum, 
Morin,  tract,  iii.,  214a  ff.;  cf.  Conf'jrm.,  137  ff. 


260 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


mire  the  ideal  monk  whom  Ugolini  and  the  Church  have 
proposed  to  him  for  an  example  : 

The  Lord  says  in  the  Gospels  :  "  He  who  does  not  give  up  all  that  he 
has  cannot  be  my  disciple.  And  he  who  would  save  his  life  shall  lose 
it."  One  gives  up  all  he  possesses  and  loses  his  life  when  he  gives  him- 
self entirely  into  the  hands  of  his  superior,  to  obey  him.  .  .  .  And 
when  the  inferior  sees  things  which  would  be  better  or  more  useful  to 
his  soul  than  those  which  the  superior  commands  him,  let  him  offer  to 
God  the  sacrifice  of  his  will. 

Reading  this  one  might  think  that  Francis  was  about 
to  join  the  ranks  of  those  to  whom  submission  to  eccle- 
siastical authority  is  the  very  essence  of  religion.  But 
no  ;  even  here  his  true  feeling  is  not  wholly  effaced,  he 
mingles  his  words  with  parentheses  and  illustrations, 
timid,  indeed,  but  revealing  his  deepest  thought  ;  always 
ending  by  enthroning  the  individual  conscience  as  judge 
of  last  resort.1 

All  this  shows  clearly  enough  that  we  must  picture  to 
ourselves  moments  when  his  wounded  soul  sighs  after 
passive  obedience,  the  formula  of  which,  loerinde  ac  cada- 
ver, goes  apparently  much  farther  back  than  the  Company 
of  Jesus.  These  were  moments  of  exhaustion,  when  in- 
spiration was  silent. 

One  day  he  was  sitting  with  his  companions,  when  he  began  to  groan 
and  say  :  "  There  is  hardly  a  monk  upon  earth  who  perfectly  obeys  his 
superior."  His  companions,  much  astonished,  said:  "  Explain  to  us, 
father,  what  is  perfect  and  supreme  obedience."  Then,  comparing  him 
who  obeys  to  a  corpse,  he  replied  :  "  Take  a  dead  body,  and  put  it 
where  you  will,  it  will  make  no  resistance  ;  when  it  is  in  one  place  it 
will  not  murmur,  when  yon  take  it  away  from  there  it  will  not  object  ; 


1  Gum  facit  (subditus)  voluntatem  (prœlati)  dummodo  benefacit  vera 
obedientia  est.  Admon.,  iii. ;  Conform.,  139a,  2. — Si  vero  prœlatus  svb- 
dito  aliquid  contra  animam  prœcipiat  licet  ei  non  dbedint  tamen  ipsnm 
non  dimittat.,  Ibid. — Nirtlus  tenetur  ad  obcdientiam  in  eo  ubi  committitur 
delictum  vel  peccatum.    Epist.,  ii. 


THE  RULE  OF  1221 


2G1 


put  it  iu  a  pulpit,  it  will  not  look  up  but  down  ;  wrap  it  in  purple,  it 
will  only  be  doubly  pale."  1 

This  longing  for  corpse-like  obedience  witnesses  to  the 
ravages  with  which  his  soul  had  been  laid  waste  ;  it  corre- 
sponds in  the  moral  domain  to  the  cry  for  annihilation  of 
great  physical  anguish. 

The  worst  was  that  he  was  absolutely  alone.  Every- 
where else  the  Franciscan  obedience  is  living,  active, 
joyful.2 

He  drank  this  cup  to  the  very  dregs,  holding  sacred 
the  revolts  dictated  by  conscience.  One  day  in  the  later 
years  of  his  life  a  German  friar  came  to  see  him,  and  af- 
ter having  long  discussed  with  him  pure  obedience  : 

"I  ask  you  one  favor,"  lie  said  to  him,  "it  is  that  if  the  Brothers 
ever  come  to  live  no  longer  according  to  the  Rule  you  will  permit  me  to 
separate  myself  from  them,  alone  or  with  a  few  others,  to  observe  it  in 
its  completeness."  At  these  words  Francis  felt  a  great  joy.  "  Know," 
said  he,  "that  Christ  as  well  as  I  authorize  what  you  have  just  been  ask- 
ing;" and  laying  hands  upon  him,  "Thou  art  a  priest  forever,"  he 
added,  "  after  the  order  of  Melchisedec."  3 

We  have  a  yet  more  touching  proof  of  his  solicitude 
to  safeguard  the  spiritual  independence  of  his  disciples  : 
it  is  a  note  to  Brother  Leo.4  The  latter,  much  alarmed 
by  the  new  spirit  which  was  gaining  power  in  the  Order, 
opened  his  mind  thereupon  to  his  master,  and  doubtless 
asked  of  him  pretty  much  the  same  permission  as  the 
friar  from  Germany.  After  an  interview  in  which  he  re- 
plied viva  voce,  Francis,  not  to  leave  any  sort  of  doubt  or 

1  2  Cel.,  3,  89;  Spec.,  29b  ;  Conform.,  176b,  1  ;  Bon.,  77. 

2  Per  caritatem  spiritus  voluntarii  serviant  et  obediant  inmcem.  Et 
hœc  est  vera  et  sancta  obediential.    Reg.,  1221,  v. 

3  TribuL,  Laur.  MS.,  14b  ;  Spec,  125a;  Conform.,  107b,  1  ;  184b,  1. 

4  Wadding  gives  it  (Epist.  xvi.  ),  after  the  autograph  preserved  in 
the  treasury  of  the  Conventuals  of  Spoleto.  The  authenticity  of  this 
piece  is  evident. 


202 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


hesitation  in  the  mind  of  him  whom  he  surnamed  his 
little  sheep  of  God.  pecorella  di  Dio,  wrote  to  him  again  : 

Brother  Leo,  thy  brother  Francis  wishes  thee  peace  and  health. 

I  reply  yes,  my  son,  as  a  mother  to  her  child.  '  This  word  sums  up 
aU  we  said  while  walking,  as  well  as  all  my  counsels.  If  thou  hast 
need  to  come  to  me  for  counsel,  it  is  my  wish  that  thou  shouldst  do  it. 
Whatever  may  be  the  manner  in  which  thou  thinkest  thou  canst  please 
the  Lord  God,  follow  it,  and  live  in  poverty.  Do  this  (faites  le  l>,  God 
will  bless  thee  and  I  authorize  it.  And  if  it  were  necessary  for  thy  soul, 
or  for  thy  consolation  that  thou  shouldst  come  to  see  me,  or  if  thou 
desirest  it,  my  Leo,  come. 

Thine  in  Christ. 

Surely  we  are  far  enough  here  from  the  corpse  of  a 
few  pages  back. 

It  would  be  superfluous  to  pause  over  the  other  ad- 
monitions. For  the  most  part  they  are  reflections  in- 
spired by  circumstances.  Counsels  as  to  humility  recur 
with  a  frequency  which  explains  both  the  personal  anx- 
ieties of  the  author,  and  the  necessity  of  reminding  the 
brothers  of  the  very  essence  of  their  profession. 

The  sojourn  of  St.  Francis  at  Rome,  whither  he  went 
in  the  early  months  of  1221,  to  lay  his  plan  before  Ugo- 
lini,  was  marked  by  a  new  effort  of  the  latter  to  bring 
him  and  St.  Dominic  together.2 

1  This  plural,  which  perplexed  Wadding,  shows  plainly  that  Brother 
Leo  had  spoken  in  the  name  of  a  group. 

2  This  date  for  the  new  communications  between  them  seems  incontes- 
table, though  it  has  never  been  proposed  ;  in  fact,  we  are  only  concerned 
to  find  a  time  when  all  three  could  have  met  at  Rome  (2  Cel.,  3,  86  ; 
Spec,  27a),  between  December  22,  1216  (the  approbation  of  the  Domin- 
icans), and  August  6,  1221  (death  of  Dominic).  Only  two  periods  are 
possible  :  the  early  months  of  1218  (Potthast,  5739  and  5747)  aud  the 
winter  of  1220-1221.  At  any  other  time  one  of  the  three  was  absent 
from  Rome. 

On  the  other  hand  we  know  that  Ugolini  was  in  Rome  in  the  winter 
of  1220-1221  (Huillard-Bréholles,  Hist,  dipt.,  ii.,  pp.  48,  123,  142.  Cf. 
Potthast,  6589).— For  Dominic  see  A.  SS.,  Aug.,  vol.  i.,  p.  503.  The 
later  date  is  imperative  because  Ugolini  could  not  offer  prelatures  to 


THE  RULE  OF  1221 


203 


The  cardinal  was  at  this  time  at  the  apogee  of  his 
success.  Everything  had  gone  well  with  him.  His 
voice  was  all  powerful  not  only  in  affairs  of  the  Church, 
but  also  in  those  of  the  Empire.  Erederic  II.,  who 
seemed  to  be  groping  his  way,  and  in  whose  mind  were 
germinating  dreams  of  religious  reformation,  and  the 
desire  of  placing  his  power  at  the  service  of  the  truth, 
treated  him  as  a  friend,  and  spoke  of  him  with  un- 
bounded admiration.1 

In  his  reflections  upon  the  remedies  to  be  applied  to 
the  woes  of  Christianity,  the  cardinal  came  at  last  to 
think  that  one  of  the  most  efficacious  would  be  the  sub- 
stitution of  bishops  taken  from  the  two  new  Orders,  for 
the  feudal  episcopate  almost  always  recruited  from  local 
families  in  which  ecclesiastical  dignities  were,  so  to 
speak,  hereditary.  In  the  eyes  of  Ugolini  such  bishops 
were  usually  wanting  in  two  essential  qualities  of  a  good 
prelate  :  religious  zeal  and  zeal  for  the  Church. 

He  believed  that  the  Preaching  and  the  Minor  Eriars 
would  not  only  possess  those  virtues  which  were  lacking 
in  the  others,  but  that  in  the  hands  of  the  papacy  they 
might  become  a  highly  centralized  hierarchy,  truly 
catholic,  wholly  devoted  to  the  interests  of  the  Church 
at  large.  The  difficulties  which  might  occur  on  the  part 
of  the  chapters  which  should  elect  the  bishops,  as  well 
as  on  the  side  of  the  high  secular  clergy,  would  be  put  to 
flight  by  the  enthusiasm  which  the  people  would  feel  for 
pastors  whose  poverty  would  recall  the  days  of  the  prim- 
itive Church. 

At  the  close  of  his  interviews  with  Francis  and  Dorn- 

the  Brothers  Minor  before  their  explicit  approbation  (June  11,  1219), 
and  this  offer  had  no  meaning  with  regard  to  the  Dominicans  until 
after  the  definitive  establishment  of  their  Order. 

1  See  the  imperial  letters  of  February  10,  1221  ;  Huillard-Bréholles, 
vol.  ii.,  pp.  122-127. 


264 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


inic,  lie  communicated  to  them  some  of  these  thoughts, 
asking  their  advice  as  to  the  elevation  of  their  friars  to 
prelatnres.  There  was  a  pious  contest  between  the  two 
saints  as  to  which  should  answer  first.  Finally,  Dominic 
said  simply  that  he  should  prefer  to  see  his  companions 
remain  as  they  were.  In  his  turn,  Francis  showed  that 
the  very,  name  of  his  institute  made  the  thing  impossible. 
"If  my  friars  have  been  called  Minores"  he  said,  "  it  is 
not  that  they  may  become  Majores.  If  you  desire  that 
they  become  fruitful  in  the  Church  of  God,  leave  them 
alone,  and  keep  them  in  the  estate  into  which  God  has 
called  them.  I  pray  you,  father,  do  not  so  act  that 
their  poverty  shall  become  a  motive  for  pride,  nor  ele- 
vate them  to  prelatures  which  would  move  them  to  insol- 
ence toward  others."  1 

The  ecclesiastical  policy  followed  by  the  popes  was 
destined  to  render  this  counsel  of  the  two  founders  wholly 
useless.2 

Francis  and  Dominic  parted,  never  again  to  meet. 
The  Master  of  the  Preaching  Friars  shortly  after  set  out 
for  Bologna,  where  he  died  on  August  6th  following,  and 
Francis  returned  to  Portiuncula,  where  Pietro  di  Catana 
had  just  died  (March  10,  1221).  He  was  replaced  at  the 
head  of  the  Order  by  Brother  Elias.  Ugolini  was  doubt- 
less not  without  influence  in  this  choice. 

Detained  by  his  functions  of  legate,  he  could  not  be 
present  at  the  Whitsunday  chapter  (May  30,  1221). 3  He 
was  represented  there  by  Cardinal  Beynerio,4  who  came 

1  2  Cel.,  3,  86  ;  Bon.,  78;  Spec.,  27b. 

2  Vide  K.  Eubel  :  Die  BiscJiôfe,  Cardinale  und  Pâpste  ans  dem  Min<h 
ritenorden  bis  1305,  8vo,  1889. 

3  He  was  in  Northern  Italy.    Vide  Begistri  :  Doc,  17-28. 

4  Reynerius,  cardinal- deacon  with  the  title  of  S.  M.  in  Cosmedin, 
Bishop  of  Viterbo  (cf.  Innocent  III.,  Opera,  Migne,  1,  col.  ccxiii),  1  Cel., 
125.  He  had  been  named  rector  of  the  Duchy  of  Spoleto,  August  3, 
1230.    Potthast,  6319, 


THE  RULE  OF  "1521 


265 


accompanied  by  several  bishops  and  by  monks  of  various 
orders.1  About  three  thousand  friars  were  there  assem- 
bled, but  so  great  was  the  eagerness  of  the  people  of  the 
neighborhood  to  bring  provisions,  that  after  a  session  of 
seven  days  they  were  obliged  to  remain  two  days  longer 
to  eat  up  all  that  had  been  brought.  The  sessions  were 
presided  over  by  Brother  Elias,  Francis  sitting  at  his  feet 
and  pulling  at  his  robe  when  there  was  anything  that  he 
wished  to  have  put  before  the  Brothers. 

Brother  Giordani  di  Giano,  who  was  present,  has  pre- 
served for  us  all  these  details  and  that  of  the  setting  out 
of  a  group  of  friars  for  Germany.  They  were  placed 
under  the  direction  of  Csesar  of  Speyer,  whose  mission 
succeeded  beyond  all  expectation.  Eighteen  months 
after,  when  he  returned  to  Italy,  consumed  with  the 
desire  to  see  St.  Francis  again,  the  cities  of  Wurzburg, 
Mayence,  Worms,  Srjeyer,  Strasburg,  Cologne,  Salzburg, 
and  Batisbon  had  become  Franciscan  centres,  from  whence 
the  new  ideas  were  radiating  into  all  Southern  Germany. 

The  foundation  of  the  Tertiaries,  or  Third  Order,  gen- 
erally in  the  oldest  documents  called  Brotherhood  of 
Penitence,  is  usually  fixed  as  occurring  in  the  year  1221  ; 
but  we  have  already  seen  that  this  date  is  much  too  re- 
cent, or  rather  that  it  is  impossible  to  fix  any  date,  for 
what  was  later  called,  quite  arbitrarily,  the  Third  Order 
is  evidently  contemporary  with  the  First.'2 

1  Giord.,  16.  The  presence  of  Dominic  at  an  earlier  chapter  had 
therefore  been  quite  natural. 

-  This  view  harmonizes  in  every  particular  with  the  witness  of  1  Cel., 
36  and  37.  which  shows  the  Third  Order  as  having  been  quite  naturally 
born  of  the  enthusiasm  excited  by  the  preaching  of  Francis  immedi- 
ately after  his  return  from  Borne  in  1210  (cf.  Axictor  rit.  sec;  A.  SS., 
p.  593b).  Xothing  in  any  other  document  contradicts  it  ;  quite  the 
contrary.  Yide  3  Soc,  60.  Cf.  Anon.  Penis.-,  A.  SS.,  p.  600;  Bon.,  25, 
46.  Cf.  A.  SS..  pp.  631-634.  The  first  bull  which  concerns  the 
Brothers  of  Penitence  (without  naming  them)  is  of  December  16,  1221, 


266 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Francis  and  Lis  companions  desired  to  be  the  apostles 
of  their  time  ;  but  they,  no  more  than  the  apostles  of 
Jesus,  desired  to  have  all  men  enter  their  association, 
which  was  necessarily  somewhat  restricted,  and  which, 
according  to  the  gospel  saying,  Avas  meant  to  be  the 
leaven  of  the  rest  of  humanity.  In  consequence,  their 
life  was  literally  the  apostolic  life,  but  the  ideal  which 
they  preached  was  the  evangelical  life,  such  as  Jesus  had 
preached  it. 

St.  Francis  no  more  condemned  the  family  or  property 
than  Jesus  did  ;  he  simply  saw  in  them  ties  from  which 
the  apostle,  and  the  apostle  alone,  needs  to  be  free. 

If  before  long  sickly  minds  fancied  that  they  inter- 
preted his  thought  in  making  the  union  of  the  sexes  an 
evil,  and  all  that  concerns  the  physical  activity  of  man  a 
fall  ;  if  unbalanced  spirits  borrowed  the  authority  of  his 
'name  to  escape  from  all  duty  ;  if  married  persons  con- 
demned themselves  to  the  senseless  martyrdom  of  vir- 
ginity, he  should  certainly  not  be  made  responsible. 
These  traces  of  an  unnatural  asceticism  come  from  the 
dualist  ideas  of  the  Catharists,  and  not  from  the  inspired 
poet  who  sang  nature  and  her  fecundity,  who  made  nests 
for  doves,  inviting  them  to  multiply  under  the  watch  of 
God,  and  who  imposed  manual  labor  on  his  friars  as  a 
sacred  duty. 

The  bases  of  the  corporation  of  the  Brothers  and  Sis- 
ters of  Penitence  were  very  simple.  Francis  gave  no 
new  doctrine  to  the  world  ;  what  was  new  in  his  message 

Signification  est.  If  it  really  refers  to  them,  as  Sbaralea  thinks,  with 
all  those  who  have  interested  themselves  in  the  question  to  M.  Miiller 
inclusively — but  which,  it  appears,  might  be  contested — it  is  because  in 
1221  they  had  made  appeal  to  the  pope  against  the  podestàs  of  Faenza 
and  the  neighboring  cities.  This  evidently  supposes  an  association  not 
recently  born.  Sbaralea,  Bull,  fr.,  1,  p.  8;  Horoy,  vol.  iv. ,  col.  49; 
Fotthast,  6736. 


THE  RULE  OF  1221 


267 


was  wholly  in  his  love,  in  his  direct  call  to  the  evangelical 
life,  to  an  ideal  of  moral  vigor,  of  labor,  and  of  love. 

Naturally,  there  were  soon  found  men  who  did  not 
understand  this  true  and  simple  beauty  ;  they  fell  into 
observances  and  devotions,  imitated,  while  living  in  the 
world,  the  life  of  the  cloister  to  which  for  one  reason  or 
another  they  were  not  able  to  retire;  but  it  would  be 
unjust  to  picture  to  ourselves  the  Brothers  of  Penitence 
as  modelled  after  them. 

Did  they  receive  a  Kule  from  St.  Francis  ?  It  is  im- 
possible to  say.  The  one  which  was  given 1  them  in  1289 
by  Pope  Nicholas  IV.  is  simply  the  recasting  and  amal- 
gamation of  all  the  rules  of  lay  fraternities  which  existed 
at  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century.  To  attribute  this 
document  to  Francis  is  nothing  less  than  the  placing  in 
a  new  building  of  certain  venerated  stones  from  an  an- 
cient edifice.  It  is  a  matter  of  facade  and  ornamentation, 
nothing  more. 

Notwithstanding  this  absence  of  any  Rule  emanating 
from  Francis  himself,  it  is  clear  enough  what,  in  his 
estimation,  this  association  ought  to  be.  The  Gospel, 
with  its  counsels  and  examples,  was  to  be  its  true  Rule. 
The  great  innovation  designed  by  the  Third  Order  was 
concord;  this  fraternity  was  a  union  of  peace,  and  it 
brought  to  astonished  Europe  a  new  truce  of  God. 
Whether  the  absolute  refusal  to  carry  arms 2  was  an  idea 

1  Bull  Supra  montera  of  August  17,  1289.  Potthast,  23044.  M.  Mill- 
1er  has  made  a  luminous  study  of  the  origin  of  this  bull  ;  it  may  be 
considered  final  in  all  essential  points  (Anfdnge,  pp.  117-171).  By  this 
bull  Nicholas  IY. — minister-general  of  the  Brothers  Minor  before  be- 
coming pope — sought  to  draw  into  the  hands  of  his  Order  the  direction 
of  all  associations  of  pious  laics  (Third  Order  of  St.  Dominic,  the  G-au- 
dentes,  the  Humiliati,  etc.).  He  desired  by  that  to  give  a  greater  im- 
pulse to  those  fraternities  which  depended  directly  on  the  court  of 
Borne,  and  augment  their  power  by  unifying  them. 

2  Vide  Bull  Signification  est  of  December  16,  1221.  Cf.  Supra  mon- 
tern,  chap.  vii. 


SOS  LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 

wholly  chimerical  and  ephemeral,  the  documents  are  there 
to  prove,  but  it  is  a  fine  thing  to  have  had  the  power  to 
bring  it  about  for  a  few  years. 

The  second  essential  obligation  of  the  Brothers  of 
Penitence  appears  to  have  been  that  of  reducing  their 
wants  so  far  as  possible,  and  while  preserving  their  fort- 
unes to  distribute  to  the  poor  at  proper  intervals  the 
free  portion  of  the  revenue  after  contenting  themselves 
with  the  strictly  necessary.1 

To  do  with  joy  the  duties  of  their  calling  ;  to  give  a 
holy  inspiration  to  the  slightest  actions  ;  to  find  in  the 
infinitely  littles  of  existence,  things  apparently  the  most 
commonplace,  parts  of  a  divine  work  ;  to  keep  pure  from 
all  debasing  interest  ;  to  use  things  as  not  possessing 
them,  like  the  servants  in  the  parable  who  would  soon 
have  to  give  account  of  the  talents  confided  to  them  ;  to 
close  their  hearts  to  hatred,  to  open  them  wide  to  the 
poor,  the  sick,  to  all  abandoned  ones,  such  were  the  other 
essential  duties  of  the  Brothers  and  Sisters  of  Penitence. 

To  lead  them  into  this  royal  road  of  liberty,  love,  and 
responsibility,  Francis  sometimes  appealed  to  the  ter- 
rors of  hell  and  the  joys  of  paradise,  but  interested  love 
was  so  little  a  part  of  his  nature  that  these  considera- 
tions and  others  of  the  same  kind  occupy  an  entirely 
secondary  place  in  those  of  his  writings  which  remain,  as 
also  in  his  biographies. 

For  him  the  gospel  life  is  natural  to  the  soul.  Who- 
ever comes  to  know  it  will  prefer  it  ;  it  has  no  more 
need  to  be  proved  than  the  outer  air  and  the  light.  It 
needs  only  to  lead  prisoners  to  it,  for  them  to  lose  all  de- 
sire to  return  to  the  dungeons  of  avarice,  hatred,  or  fri- 
volity. 

Francis  and  his  true  disciples  make  the  painful  ascent 

1  The  Rule  of  the  Third  Order  of  the  Humiliati,  which  dates  from 
1201,  contains  a  similar  clause.    Tiraboschi,  vol.  ii.,  p.  132. 


THE  RULE  OF  1221 


209 


of  the  mountain  heights,  impelled  solely,  but  irresistibly, 
by  the  inner  voice.  The  only  foreign  aid  which  they  ac- 
cept is  the  memory  of  Jesus,  going  before  them  upon 
these  heights  and  mysteriously  living  again  before  their 
eyes  in  the  sacrament  of  the  eucharist. 

The  letter  to  all  Christians  in  which  these  thoughts 
break  forth  is  a  living  souvenir  of  St.  Francis's  teachings 
to  the  Tertiaries. 

To  represent  these  latter  to  ourselves  in  a  perfectly 
concrete  form  we  may  resort  to  the  legend  of  St.  Luc- 
chesio,  whom  tradition  makes  the  first  Brother  of  Peni- 
tence.1 

A  native  of  a  little  city  of  Tuscany  he  quitted  it  to  avoid 
its  political  enmities,  and  established  himself  at  Pog- 
gibonsi,  not  far  from  Sienna,  where  he  continued  to  trade 
in  grain.  Already  rich,  it  was  not  difficult  for  him  to  buy 
up  all  the  wheat,  and,  selling  it  in  a  time  of  scarcity,  rea- 
lize enormous  profits.  But  soon  overcome  by  Francis's 
preaching,  he  took  himself  to  task,  distributed  all  his 
superfluity  to  the  poor,  and  kept  nothing  but  his  house 
with  a  small  garden  and  one  ass. 

From  that  time  he  was  to  be  seen  devoting  himself  to 
the  cultivation  of  this  bit  of  ground,  and  making  of  his 
house  a  sort  of  hpstelry  whither  the  poor  and  the  sick 
came  in  swarms.  He  not  only  welcomed  them,  but  he 
sought  them  out,  even  to  the  malaria-infected  Maremma, 
often  returning  with  a  sick  man  astride  on  his  back  and 
preceded  by  his  ass  bearing  a  similar  burden.  The 

1  In  the  A.  SS. ,  Aprilis,  vol.  ii,  p.  600-616.  Orlando  di  Chiusi  also  re- 
ceived the  habit  from  the  hands  of  Francis.  Tide  Instrumentum,  etc., 
below,  p.  400.  The  Franciscan  fraternity,  under  the  influence  of  the 
other  third  orders,  rapidly  lost  its  specific  character.  As  to  this  title. 
Third  Order,  it  surely  had  originally  a  hierarchical  sense,  upon  which 
little  by  little  a  chronological  sense  has  been  superposed.  All  these 
questions  become  singularly  clearer  when  they  are  compared  with  what 
is  known  of  the  Humiliati. 


270 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


resources  of  the  garden  were  necessarily  very  limited; 
when  there  was  no  other  way,  Lucchesio  took  a  wallet 
and  went  from  door  to  door  asking  alms,  but  most  of  the 
time  this  was  needless,  for  his  poor  guests,  seeing  him  so 
diligent  and  so  good,  were  better  satisfied  with  a  few 
poor  vegetables  from  the  garden  shared  with  him  than 
with  the  most  copious  repast.  In  the  presence  of  their 
benefactor,  so  joyful  in  his  destitution,  they  forgot  their 
own  poverty,  and  the  habitual  murmurs  of  these  wretches 
were  transformed  into  outbursts  of  admiration  and  grati- 
tude. 

Conversion  had  not  killed  in  him  all  family  ties  ;  Bona 
Donna,  his  wife,  became  his  best  co-laborer,  and  when  in 
1200  he  saw  her  gradually  fading  away  his  grief  was  too 
deep  to  be  endured.  "You  know,  dear ' companion,"  he 
said  to  her  when  she  had  received  the  last  sacraments, 
"  how  much  we  have  loved  one  another  while  we  could 
serve  God  together;  why  should  we  not  remain  united 
until  we  depart  to  the  ineffable  joy  ?  Wait  for  me.  I 
also  will  receive  the  sacraments,  and  go  to  heaven  with 
you." 

So  he  spoke,  and  called  back  the  priest  to  administer 
them  to  him.  Then  after  holding  the  hands  of  his  dying 
companion,  comforting  her  with  gentle  words,  when  he 
saw  that  her  soul  was  gone  he  made  over  her  the  sign  of 
the  cross,  stretched  himself  beside  her,  and  calling  with 
love  upon  Jesus,  Mary,  and  St.  Francis,  he  fell  asleep  for 
eternity. 


CHAPTER  XVI 


THE  BROTHERS  MINOR  AND  LEARNING 
Autumn,  1221 — December,  1223 

After  the  chapter  of  1221  the  evolution  of  the  Order 
hurried  on  with  a  rapidity  which  nothing  was  strong- 
enough  to  check. 

The  creation  of  the  ministers  was  an  enormous  step 
in  this  direction  ;  by  the  very  pressure  of  things  the 
latter  came  to  establish  a  residence  ;  those  who  command 
must  have  their  subordinates  within  reach,  must  know 
at  all  times  where  they  are;  the  Brothers,  therefore, 
could  no  longer  continue  to  do  without  convents  properly 
so-called.  This  change  naturally  brought  about  many 
others  ;  up  to  this  time  they  had  had  no  churches.  With- 
out churches  the  friars  were  only  itinerant  preachers,  and 
their  purpose  could  not  but  be  perfectly  disinterested  ; 
they  were,  as  Francis  had  wished,  the  friendly  auxiliaries 
of  the  clergy.  With  churches  it  was  inevitable  that  they 
should  first  fatally  aspire  to  preach  in  them  and  attract 
the  crowd  to  them,  then  in  some  sort  erect  them  into 
counter  parishes.1 

1  All  this  took  place  with  prodigious  rapidity.  The  dimensions  of 
the  Basilica  of  Assisi,  the  plans  of  which  were  made  in  1228,  no  more 
permits  it  to  he  considered  as  a  conventual  chapel  than  Santa-Croce 
in  Florence,  San  Francesco  in  Sienna,  or  the  Basilica  San  Antonio  at 
Padua,  monuments  commenced  between  1230  and  1240.  Already  be- 
fore 1245  one  party  of  the  episcopate  utters  a  cry  of  alarm,  in  which  he 
speaks  of  nothing  less  than  of  closing  the  door  of  the  secular  churches, 


272 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


The  bull  of  March  22,  1222/  shows  us  the  papacy 
hastening  these  transformations  with  all  its  power.  The 
pontiff  accords  to  Brother  Francis  and  the  other  friars 
the  privilege  of  celebrating  the  sacred  mysteries  in  their 
churches  in  times  of  interdict,  on  the  natural  condition 
of  not  ringing  the  bells,  of  closing  the  door,  and  pre- 
viously expelling  those  who  were  excommunicated. 

By  an  astonishing  inadvertence  the  bull  itself  bears 
witness  to  its  uselessness,  at  least  for  the  time  in  which 
it  was  given  :  "  We  accord  to  you,"  it  runs,  "  the  permis- 
sion to  celebrate  the  sacraments  in  times  of  interdict  in 
your  churches,  if  you  come  to  have  any"  This  is  a  new 
proof  that  in  1222  the  Order  as  yet  had  none  ;  but  it 
is  not  difficult  to  see  in  this  very  document  a  pressing 
invitation  to  change  their  way  of  working,  and  not  leave 
this  privilege  to  be  of  no  avail. 

Another  document  of  the  same  time  shows  a  like  pur- 
pose, though  manifested  in  another  direction.  By  the 
bull  Ex  farte  of  March  29,  1222,  Honorius  III.  laid 
upon  the  Preachers  and  Minors  of  Lisbon  conjointly  a 
singularly  delicate  mission  ;  he  gave  them  full  powers  to 
proceed  against  the  bishop  and  clergy  of  that  city,  who 
exacted  from  the  faithful  that  they  should  leave  to  them 

which  have  become  useless.  He  complains  with  incredible  bitterness 
that  the  Minor  and  Preaching  Friars  have  absolutely  supplanted  the 
parochial  clergy.  This  letter  may  be  found  in  Pierre  de  la  Vigne, 
addressed  at  once  to  Frederick  II.  and  the  Council  of  Lyons  :  Epùtolœ, 
Basle,  1740,  2  vols.,  vol.  i.,  pp.  220-222.  It  is  much  to  be  desired 
that  a  critical  text  should  be  given.  See  also  the  satire  against  the  two 
new  Orders,  done  in  rhyme  about  1242  by  Pierre  de  la  Vigne,  and  of 
which,  allowing  for  possible  exaggerations,  the  greater  number  of  the  in- 
cidents cannot  have  been  invented  :  E.  du  Méril,  Poésies  pop.  lut.,  pp. 
153-177,  Paris,  8vo,  1847. 

1  And  not  of  the  29th,  as  Sbaralea  will  have  it.  Bullfr.,  vol.  i.,  n. 
10.  Horoy,  vol.  iv.,  col.  129;  the  original,  still  in  the  archives  of 
Assisi,  bears  the  title  :  Datum  Anagnie  11  Kalendas  Aprilis  pontificatus 
noslri  anno  sexto. 


THE  BKOTHEES  MINOR  AND  LEARNING  273 


by  will  one-third  of  their  property,  and  refused  the 
Church's  burial  service  to  those  who  disobeyed.1 

-The  fact  that  the  pope  committed  to  the  Brothers  the 
care  of  choosing  what  measures  they  should  take  proves 
how^  anxious  they  were  at  Rome  to  forget  the  object  for 
which  they  had  been  created,  and  to  transform  them  into 
deputies  of  the  Holy  See.  It  is,  therefore,  needless  to 
point  out  that  the  mention  of  Francis's  name  at  the  head 
of  the  former  of  these  bulls  has  no  significance.  We  do 
not  picture  the  Poverello  seeking  a  privilege  for  circum- 
stances not  yet  existing  !  We  perceive  here  the  influence 
of  Ugolini,2  who  had  found  the  Brother  Minor  after  his 
own  heart  in  the  person  of  Elias. 

What  was  Francis  doing  all  this  time  ?  We  have  no 
knowledge,  but  the  very  absence  of  information,  so  abun- 
dant for  the  period  that  precedes  as  well  as  for  that  which 
follows,  shows  plainly  enough  that  he  has  quitted  Porti- 
uncula,  and  gone  to  live  in  one  of  those  Umbrian  her- 
mitages that  had  always  had  so  strong  an  attachment 
for  him.3  There  is  hardly  a  hill  in  Central  Italy  that 
has  not  preserved  some  memento  of  him.  It  would  be 
hard  to  walk  half  a  day  between  Florence  and  Rome 
without  coming  upon  some  hut  on  a  hillside  bearing  his 
name  or  that  of  one  of  his  disciples. 

1  Fotthast,  6809  ;  Horoy,  iv.,  col.  129.  See  also  the  bull  Ease  Venit 
Deus  of  July  14,  1227  ;  L.  Auvray  :  Registres  de  Grégoire  IX.,  no.  129; 
cf.  153  ;  Potthast,  8027  and  8028,  8189.' 

2  He  bad  finished  his  mission  as  legate  in  Lombardy  toward  the  close  of 
September,  1221  (see  his  register;  cf.  Bohmer,  Acta  imp.  sel.  doc,  951). 
In  the  spring  of  1222  we  find  him  continually  near  the  pope  at  Anagni, 
Veroli,  Alatri  (Potthast,  6807,  6812,  6849).  The  Holy  See  had  still  at 
that  time  a  marked  predilection  for  the  Preachers  ;  the  very  trite 
privilege  of  power  to  celebrate  the  offices  in  times  of  interdict  had 
been  accorded  them  March  7,  1222,  but  instead  of  the  formula  usual 
in  such  cases,  a  revised  form  had  been  made  expressly  for  them,  with  a 
handsome  eulogy.    Ripolli,  Brdl.  Prœd.,  t.  i..  p.  15. 

3  2  Cel..  3.  93  :  Subtmhebat  se  a  consortio  fratrum. 

18 


274 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


There  was  a  time  when  these  huts  were  inhabited, 
when  in  these  leafy  booths  Egidio,  Masseo,  Bernardo, 
Silvestro,  Ginepro,  and  many  others  whose  names  his- 
tory has  forgotten,  received  visits  from  their  spiritual 
father,  coming  to  them  for  their  consolation.1 

They  gave  him  love  for  love  and  consolation  for  con- 
solation. His  poor  heart  had  great  need  of  both,  for  in 
his  long,  sleepless  nights  it  had  come  to  him  at  times  to 
hear  strange  voices  ;  weariness  and  regret  were  laying 
hold  on  him,  and  looking  over  the  past  he  was  almost 
driven  to  doubt  of  himself,  his  Lady  Poverty,  and  every- 
thing. 

Between  Chiusi  and  Badicofani — an  hour's  walk  from 
the  village  of  Sartiano — a  few  Brothers  had  made  a  shel- 
ter which  served  them  by  way  of  hermitage,  with  a 
little  cabin  for  Francis  in  a  retired  spot.  There  he 
passed  one  of  the  most  agonizing  nights  of  his  life.  The 
thought  that  he  had  exaggerated  the  virtue  of  asceticism 
and  not  counted  enough  upon  the  mercy  of  God  assailed 
him,  and  suddenly  he  came  to  regret  the  use  he  had 
made  of  his  life.  A  picture  of  what  he  might  have  been, 
of  the  tranquil  and  happy  home  that  might  have  been  his, 
rose  up  before  him  in  such  living  colors  that  he  felt 
himself  giving  way.  In  vain  he  disciplined  himself  with 
his  hempen  girdle  until  the  blood  came  ;  the  vision  would 
not  depart. 

It  was  midwinter  ;  a  heavy  fall  of  snow  covered  the 
ground  ;  he  rushed  out  without  his  garment,  and  gather- 
ing up  great  heaps  of  snow  began  to  make  a  row  of 
images.  "See,"  he  said,  "here  is  thy  wife,  and  behind 
her  are  two  sons  and  two  daughters,  with  the  servant  and 
the  maid  carrying  all  the  baggage." 

1  It  is  needless  to  say  that  local  traditions,  in  this  case,  though  as  to 
detail  they  must  be  accepted  only  with  great  reserve,  yet  on  the  whole 
are  surely  true.    The  geography  of  St.  Francis's  life  is  yet  to  be  made. 


THE  BROTHERS  MINOR  AND  LEARNING  275 

With  this  child-like  representation  of  the  tyranny  of 
material  cares  which  he  had  escaped,  he  finally  put  away 
the  temptation.1 

There  is  nothing  to  show  whether  or  not  we  should  fix 
at  the  same  epoch  another  incident  which  legend  gives 
as  taking  place  at  Sartiano.  One  day  a  brother  of  whom 
he  asked,  "  Whence  do  you  come  ?  "  replied,  "  From  your 
cell."  This  simple  answer  was  enough  to  make  the  vehe- 
ment lover  of  Poverty  refuse  to  occupy  it  again.  "Foxes 
have  holes,"  he  loved  to  repeat,  "  and  the  birds  of  the  air 
have  nests,  but  the  Son  of  man  had  not  where  to  lay  his 
head.  When  the  Lord  spent  forty  days  and  forty  nights 
praying  and  fasting  in  the  desert,  he  built  hiinself  neither 
cell  nor  house,  but  made  the  side  of  a  rock  his  shelter."2 

It  would  be  a  mistake  to  think,  as  some  have  done, 
that  as  time  went  on  Francis  changed  his  point  of  view. 
Certain  ecclesiastical  writers  have  assumed  that  since  he 
desired  the  multiplication  of  his  Order,  he  for  that  very 
reason  consented  to  its  transformation.  The  suggestion 
is  specious,  but  in  this  matter  we  are  not  left  to  conject- 
ure ;  almost  everything  which  was  done  in  the  Order 
after  1221  was  done  either  without  Francis's  knowledge 
or  against  his  will.  If  one  were  inclined  to  doubt  this,  it 
would  need  only  to  glance  over  that  most  solemn  and 
also  most  adequate  manifesto  of  his  thought — his  Will- 
There  he  is  shown  freed  from  all  the  temptations  which 
had  at  times  made  him  hesitate  in  the  expression  of  his 
ideas,  bravely  gathering  himself  up  to  summon  back  the 
primitive  ideal,  and  set  it  up  in  opposition  to  all  the 
concessions  which  had  been  wrung  from  his  weakness. 

The  Will  is  not  an  appendix  to  the  Rule  of  1223,  it  is 
almost  its  revocation.  But  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  see 
in  it  the  first  attempt  made  to  return  to  the  early  ideal. 

1  2  Cel.,  3,  59  ;  Bon.,  60;  Conform.,  122b,  2, 

2  2  Cel.,  3,  5  ;  Spec.,  12a;  Conform.,  169b,  2. 


216 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


The  last  five  years  of  his  life  were  only  one  incessant 
effort  at  protest,  both  by  his  example  and  his  words. 

In  1222  he  addressed  to  the  brethren  of  Bologna  a 
letter  filled  with  sad  forebodings.  In  that  city,  where 
the  Dominicans,  overwhelmed  with  attentions,  were 
occupied  with  making  themselves  a  stronghold  in  the 
system  of  instruction,  the  Brothers  Minor  were  more 
than  anywhere  else  tempted  to  forsake  the  way  of  sim- 
plicity and  poverty.  Francis's  warnings  had  put  on  such 
dark  and  threatening  colors  that  after  the  famous  earth- 
quake of  December  23,  1222,  which  spread  terror  over 
all  northern  Italy,  there  was  no  hesitation  in  believing 
that  he  had  predicted  the  catastrophe.1  He  had  indeed 
predicted  a  catastrophe  which  was  none  the  less  horrible 
for  being  wholly  moral,  and  the  vision  of  which  forced 
from  him  the  most  bitter  imprecations  : 

"Lord  Jesus,  thou  didst  choose  thine  apostles  to  the  number  of 
twelve,  and  if  one  of  them  did  betray  thee,  the  others,  remaining 
united  to  thee,  preached  thy  holy  gospel,  filled  with  one  and  the  same 
inspiration  ;  and  behold  now,  remembering  the  former  days,  thou  hast 
raised  up  the  Religion  of  the  Brothers  in  order  to  uphold  faith,  and 
that  by  them  the  mystery  of  thy  gospel  may  be  accomplished.  Who 
will  take  their  place  if,  instead  of  fulfilling  their  mission  and  being 
shining  examples  for  all,  they  are  seen  to  give  themselves  up  to  works 
of  darkness  ?  Oh  !  may  they  be  accursed  by  thee,  Lord,  and  by  all  the 
court  of  heaven,  and  by  me,  thine  unworthy  servant,  they  who  by  their 
bad  example  overturn  and  destroy  all  that  thou  didst  do  in  the  begin- 
ning and  ceasest  not  to  do  by  the  holy  Brothers  of  this  Order."  2 

This  passage  from  Thomas  of  Celano,  the  most  mode- 
rate of  the  biographers,  shows  to  what  a  pitch  of  vehe- 
mence and  indignation  the  gentle  Francis  could  be 
wrorked  up. 

In  spite  of  very  natural  efforts  to  throw  a  veil  of  re- 

1  Eccl.,  6.  Vide  Liebermann's  text,  Mon.  Germ.  /list.  Script.,  t.  28, 
p.  663. 

2  2  Cel.,     03  ;  Bon.,  104  and  105  ;  Conform...  101a.  2, 


TUE  BROTHERS  MIjSTOR  AXD  LEARNING 


277 


serve  over  the  anguish  of  the  founder  with  regard  to  the 
future  of  his  spiritual  family,  we  find  traces  of  it  at  every 
step.  "  The  time  will  come,"  he  said  one  day,  li  when  our 
Order  will  so  have  lost  all  good  renown  that  its  members 
will  be  ashamed  to  show  themselves  by  daylight." 1 

He  saw  in  a  dream  a  statue  with  the  head  of  pure 
gold,  the  breast  and  arms  of  silver,  the  body  of  crystal, 
and  the  legs  of  iron.  He  thought  it  was  an  omen  of  the 
future  in  store  for  his  institute.' 

He  believed  his  sons  to  be  attacked  with  two  maladies, 
unfaithful  at  once  to  poverty  and  humility  ;  but  perhaps 
he  dreaded  for  them  the  demon  of  learning  more  than 
the  temptation  of  riches. 

What  were  his  views  on  the  subject  of  learning  ?  It  is 
probable  that  he  never  examined  the  question  as  a  whole, 
but  he  had  no  difficulty  in  seeing  that  there  will  always 
be  students  enough  in  the  universities,  and  that  if  scien- 
tific effort  is  an  homage  offered  to  God,  there  is  no  risk 
of  worshippers  of  this  class  being  wanting  ;  but  in  vain  he 
looked  about  him  on  all  sides,  he  saw  no  one  to  fulfil  the 
mission  of  love  and  humility  reserved  for  his  Order,  if 
the  friars  came  to  be  unfaithful  to  it. 

Therefore  there  was  something  more  in  his  anguish 
than  the  grief  of  seeing  his  hopes  confounded.  The  rout 
of  an  army  is  nothing  in  comparison  with  the  overthrow 
of  an  idea  ;  and  in  him  an  idea  had  been  incarnated,  the 
idea  of  peace  and  happiness  restored  to  mankind,  by  the 
victory  of  love  over  the  trammels  of  material  things. 

By  an  ineffable  mystery  he  felt  himself  the  Man  of  his 
age,  him  in  whose  body  are  borne  all  the  efforts,  the  de- 

l2  Cel.,  3,  93;  Spec.,  *49b  ;  182a:  Conform.,  182a,  1  ;  TribuL,  V 
5a  ;  2  Cel.,  3.  98  ;  113  ;  115  ;  1  Cel.,  28,  50;  96  ;  103  ;  104;  108;  111; 
118. 

2  2  Cel.,  3,  2-7  ;  Spec.,  38b:  Conform.,  181b,  1  ;  Tribul.,  7b.  Cf. 
Spec.,2ï0h  ;  Conform,,  103b. 


278 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


sires,  the  aspirations  of  men;  with  him,  in  him,  by  him 
humanity  yearns  to  be  renewed,  and  to  use  the  language 
of  the  gospel,  born  again. 

In  this  lies  his  true  beauty.  By  this,  far  more  than 
by  a  vain  conformity,  an  exterior  imitation,  he  is  a 
Christ. 

He  also  bears  the  affliction  of  the  world,  and  if  we  will 
look  into  the  very  depths  of  his  soul  we  must  give  this 
word  affliction  the  largest  possible  meaning  for  him  as  for 
Jesus.  By  their  pity  they  bore  the  physical  sufferings  of 
humanity,  but  their  overwhelming  anguish  was  some- 
thing far  different  from  this,  it  was  the  birth-throes  of 
the  divine.  They  suffer,  because  in  them  the  Word  is 
made  flesh,  and  at  Gethsemane,  as  under  the  olive-trees 
of  Greccio,  they  are  in  agony  "because  their  own  re- 
ceived them  not." 

Yes,  St.  Francis  forever  felt  the  travail  of  the  transfor- 
mation taking  place  in  the  womb  of  humanity,  going  for- 
ward to  its  divine  destiny,  and  he  offered  himself,  a  living 
oblation,  that  in  him  might  take  place  the  mysterious 
palingenesis. 

Do  we  now  understand  his  pain  ?  He  was  trembling 
for  the  mystery  of  the  gospel.  There  is  in  him  some- 
thing which  reminds  us  of  the  tremor  of  life  when  it 
stands  face  to  face  with  death,  something  by  so  much 
the  more  painful  as  we  have  here  to  do  with  moral  life. 

This  explains  how  the  man  who  would  run  after  ruf- 
fians that  he  might  make  disciples  of  them  could  be  piti- 
less toward  his  fellow-laborers  who  by  an  indiscreet, 
however  well-intentioned,  zeal  forgot  their  vocation  and 
would  transform  their  Order  into  a  scientific  institute. 

Under  pretext  of  putting  learning  at  the  service  of  God 
and  of  religion,  the  Church  had  fostered  the  worst  of 
vices,  pride.  According  to  some  it  is  her  title  to  glory, 
but  it  will  be  her  greatest  shame. 


THE  BROTHERS  MINOR  AND  LEARNING  219 


Must  we  renounce  the  use  of  this  weapon  against  the 
enemies  of  the  faith?  she  asks.  But  can  y  on  imagine 
Jesus  joining  the  school  of  the  rabbins  under  the  pretext 
of  learning  how  to  reply  to  them,  enfeebling  his  thought 
by  their  dialectic  subtleties  and  fantastic  exegesis  ?  He 
might  perhaps  have  been  a  great  doctor,  but  would  he 
have  become  the  Saviour  of  the  world?  You  feel  that 
he  would  not. 

^Yhen  we  hear  preachers  going  into  raptures  over  the 
marvellous  spread  of  the  gospel  preached  by  twelve  poor 
fishermen  of  Galilee,  might  we  not  point  out  to  them 
that  the  miracle  is  at  once  more  and  less  astounding  than 
they  say  ?  More — for  among  the  twelve  several  returned 
to  the  shores  of  their  charming  lake,  and  forgetful  of 
the  mystic  net,  thought  of  the  Crucified  One,  if  they 
thought  of  him  at  all,  only  to  lament  him,  and  riot  to  raise 
him  from  the  dead  by  continuing  his  work  in  the  four 
quarters  of  the  world  ;  less — for  if  even  now,  in  these 
dying  days  of  the  nineteenth  century,  preachers  would 
go  forth  beside  themselves  with  love,  sacrificing  them- 
selves for  each  and  all  as  in  the  old  days  their  Master 
did,  the  miracle  would  be  repeated  again. 

But  no;  theology  has  killed  religion.  The  clergy  re- 
peat to  satiety  that  we  must  not  confound  the  two  ;  but 
what  good  does  this  do  if  in  practice  we  do  not  distin- 
guish them  ? 

Never  was  learning  more  eagerly  coveted  than  in  the 
thirteenth  century.  The  Empire  and  the  Church  were 
anxiously  asking  of  it  the  arguments  with  which  they 
might  defend  their  opposing  claims.  Innocent  III.  sends 
the  collection  of  his  Decretals  to  the  University  of  Bo- 
logna and  heaps  favors  upon  it.  Frederick  II.  founds 
that  of  Naples,  and  the  Patarini  themselves  send  their 
sons  from  Tuscany  and  Lombardy  to  study  at  Paris. 

TVe  remember  the  success  of  Francis's  preaching  at 


280 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Bologna,1  in  August,  1220  ;  at  the  same  period  lie  had 
strongly  reprimanded  Pietro  Staccia,  the  provincial  min- 
ister and  a  doctor  of  laws,  not  only  for  having  installed 
the  Brothers  in  a  house  which  appeared  to  belong  to 
them,  but  especially  for  having  organized  a  sort  of  col- 
lege there. 

It  appears  that  the  minister  paid  no  attention  to  these 
reproaches.  When  Francis  became  aware  of  his  obstinacy 
he  ciirsed  him  with  frightful  vehemence  ;  his  indignation 
was  so  great  that  when,  later  on,  Pietro  Staccia  was 
about  to  die  and  his  numerous  friends  came  to  entreat 
Francis  to  revoke  his  malediction,  all  their  efforts  were  in 
vain.2 

In  the  face  of  this  attitude  of  the  founder  it  is  very 
difficult  to  believe  in  the  authenticity  of  the  note  pur- 
porting to  be  addressed  to  Anthony  of  Padua  : 

"  To  my  very  dear  Anthony,  brother  Francis,  greetings  in  Christ. 

"  It  pleases  me  that  you  interpret  to  the  Brothers  the  sacred  writings 
and  theology,  in  such  a  way,  however  (conformably  to  our  Rule),  that 
the  spirit  of  holy  prayer  be  not  extinguished  either  in  you  or  in  the 
others,  which  I  desire  earnestly.  Greetings." 

Must  we  see  in  this  a  pious  fraud  to  weaken  the  num- 
berless clear  declarations  of  Francis  against  learning  ? 
It  is  difficult  to  picture  to  ourselves  the  rivalry  which 

1  Francis's  successors  were  nearly  all  without  exception  students  of 
Bologna.  Pietro  di  Catana  was  doctor  of  laws,  as  also  Giovanni  Parenti 
(Giord. ,  5lV — Elias  had  been  scriptor  at  Bologna. — Alberto  of  Pisa  had 
been  minister  there  (Eccl.,  6). — Aymon  had  been  reader  there  (Eccl. , 
6). — Crescentius  wrote  works  on  jurisprudence  {Conform.,  121b,  l,etc, 
etc  ). 

2  This  name  cannot  be  warranted  ;  he  is  called  Giovanni  di  Laschac- 
cia  in  a  passage  of  the  Conformities  (104a,  1)  ;  Pietro  Schiaccia  in  the 
Italian  3IS.  of  the  Tribulations  (f°  75a)  ;  Petrus  Stacia  in  the  Lauren- 
tinian  MS.  (13b  ;  cf.  Archk.,  ii„  p.  258).  Tribul.,  13b  ;  Spec,  184b. 
This  story  has  been  much  amplified  in  other  places.  Spec,  126a  ;  Con- 
form..  104b,  1. 


THE  BROTHERS  MIXOR  AND  LEARNING  281 


existed  at  this  time  between  the  Dominicans  and  Francis- 
cans in  the  attempt  to  draw  the  most  illustrious  masters 
into  their  respective  Orders.  Petty  intrigues  were  or- 
ganized, in  which  the  devotees  had  each  his  part,  to  lead 
such  or  such  a  famous  doctor  to  assume  the  habit.1  If 
the  object  of  St.  Francis  had  been  scientific,  the  friars  of 
Bologna,  Paris/and  Oxford  could  not  have  done  more.' 

The  current  was  so  strong  that  the  elder  Orders  were 
swept  away  in  it  whether  they  would  or  no  ;  twenty  years 
later  the  Cistercians  also  desired  to  become  legists,  theo- 
logians, decretalists,  and  the  rest. 

Perhaps  Francis  did  not  in  the  outset  perceive  the 
gravity  of  the  danger,  but  illusion  was  no  longer  pos- 
sible, and  from  this  time  he  showed,  as  we  have  seen, 
an  implacable  firmness.  If  later  on  his  thought  was 
travestied,  the  guilty  ones — the  popes  and  most  of  the 
ministers-general — were  obliged  to  resort  to  feats  of  pres- 
tidigitation that  are  not  to  their  credit.  "  Suppose/'  he 
would  say,  "  that  you  had  subtility  and  learning  enough 
to  know  all  things,  that  you  were  acquainted  with  all 
languages,  the  courses  of  the  stars,  and  all  the  rest,  what 
is  there  in  that  to  be  proud  of  ?  A  single  demon  knows 
more  on  these  subjects  than  all  the  men  in  this  world  put 
together.3    But  there  is  one  thing  that  the  demon  is  in- 

1  Vide  Eccl. ,  3  :  History  of  the  entrance  of  Adam  of  Oxford  into  the 
Order.    Cf.,  GhartuUvrium  Univ.  Par.,  t,  i.,  nos.  47  and  49. 

2  Eccleston's  entire  chronicle  is  a  living  witness  to  this. 

3  Admonitio,  v.;  cf.  Conform.,  141a. 

Compare  the  Constitutiones  ant iquœ  {Speculum,  Morin,  iii.,  f3  195b- 
206)  with  the  Rule.  From  the  opening  chapters  the  contradiction  is 
apparent:  Ordinamus  quod  nullum  recipiatur  in  online  nostro  nisi  sit 
talii  d-rricus  qui  sit  competenter  instructus  in  grammatica  Tel  logica  ;  aut 
nisi  sit  talis  laicus  de  cujus  ingressu  esset  xalde  Celebris  et  edificaiio  in 
populo  et  in  clero.  This  is  surely  far  from  the  spirit  of  him  who  said  : 
Et  quicurnque  renerit  amicus  xel  adversarius  fur  tel  latro  bénigne  recipi- 
atur. Rule  of  1221,  cap.  vii.  See  also  the  Exposition  of  the  Rule 
of  Bonaventura.    Speculum.  Morin.  iii.,  f  21-40. 


282 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


capable  of,  and  which  is  the  glory  of  man  :  to  be  faithful 
to  God."  1 

Definite  information  with  regard  to  the  chapters  of 
1222  and  1223  is  wanting.  The  proposed  modifications 
of  the  project  of  1221  were  discussed  by  the  ministers 2 
and  afterward  definitively  settled  by  Cardinal  Ugolini. 
The  latter  had  long  conferences  on  the  subject  with 
Francis,  who  has  himself  given  us  the  account  of  them.3 

The  result  of  them  all  was  the  Rule  of  1223.  Very 
soon  a  swarm  of  marvellous  stories,  which  it  would  be 
tedious  to  examine  in  detail,  came  to  be  clustered  around 
the  origin  of  this  document  ;  all  that  we  need  to  retain 
of  them  is  the  memory  that  they  keep  of  the  struggles 
of  Francis  against  the  ministers  for  the  preservation  of 
his  ideal. 

Before  going  to  Rome  to  ask  for  the  final  approbation 
he  had  meditated  long  in  the  solitude  of  Monte  Colombo, 
near  Rieti.  This  hill  was  soon  represented  as  a  new 
Sinai,  and  the  disciples  pictured  their  master  on  its 
heights  receiving  another  Decalogue  from  the  hands  of 
Jesus  himself.4 

Angelo  Clareno,  one  of  the  most  complacent  narrators 
of  these  traditions,  takes  upon  himself  to  point  out  their 
slight  value  ;  he  shows  us  Honorious  III.  modifying  an 
essential  passage  in  the  plan  at  the  last  moment.5  I 

1  Upon  Francis's  attitude  toward  learning  see  Tribul.,  Lanr.,  14b; 
Spec,,  184a  ;  2  Cel.,  3,  8  ;  48  ;  100  ;  116;  119  ;  120-124.  Bon.,  chap.  152, 
naturally  expresses  only  Bonaventura's  views.  See  especially  Rule  of 
1221,  cap.  xvii.;  of  1223,  cap.  x. 

2  Spec. ,  7b  :  Fecit  Franciscus  regulam  quam  papa  Honorius  confir- 
mavit  cum  bulla,  de  qua  régula  multa  fuerunt  extrada  per  ministros  con- 
tra voluntatem  b.  Francisci.    Cf.  2  Cel.,  3,  136. 

3  Bull  Quo  elongati  of  September  28,  1230  ;  Sbaralea,  i.,  p.  56. 

4  Bon.,  55  and  56  [3  Soc,  62];  Spec,  76  ;  124a;  Tribul.,  Laur.,  17b- 
19b;  Ubeftini,  Arbor.  V.,  5  ;  Conform.,  88a, 2. 

s  Tribul,  Laur.,  19a  ;  Archiv. ,  t.  iii.,  p.  601.    Cf.  A.  SS.,  p.  638e. 


TIIE  BROTHERS  MINOR  AND  LEARNING  2S3 

have  already  so  far  described  this  Rule  that  there  is  no 
need  to  return  to  the  subject  here. 

It  was  approved  November  25,  1223. 1  Many  mem- 
ories appear  to  have  clustered  about  the  journey  of 
Francis  to  Rome.  One  day  Cardinal  Ugolini,  whose 
hospitality  he  had  accepted,  was  much  surprised,  and  his 
guests  as  well,  to  find  him  absent  as  they  were  about  to 
sit  down  at  table,  but  they  soon  saw  him  coming,  carry- 
ing a  quantity  of  pieces  of  dry  bread,  which  he  joyfully 
distributed  to  all  the  noble  company.  His  host,  some- 
what abashed  by  the  proceeding,  having  undertaken  after 
the  meal  to  reproach  him  a  little,  Francis  explained  that 
he  had  no  right  to  forget,  for  a  sumptuous  feast,  the  bread 
of  charity  on  which  he  was  fed  every  day,  and  that  he 
desired  thus  to  show  his  brethren  that  the  richest  table 
is  not  worth  so  much  to  the  poor  in  spirit  as  this  table 
of  the  Lord.3 

We  have  seen  that  during  the  earlier  years  the  Broth- 
ers Minor  had  been  in  the  habit r  of  earning  their  bread 
by  going  out  as  servants.  Some  of  thein,  a  very  small 
number,  had  continued  to  do  so.  Little  by  little,  in 
this  matter  also  all  had  been  changed.  LTnder  color  of 
serving,  the  friars  entered  the  families  of  the  highest 
personages  of  the  pontifical  court,  and  became  their  con- 
fidential attendants  ;  instead  of  submitting  themselves 
to  all,  as  the  Rule  of  1221  ordained,  they  were  above 
everyone.  :; 

Entirely  losing  sight  of  the  apostolic  life,  they  became 
courtiers  of  a  special  type  ;  their  character,  half  ecclesi- 
astic and  half  lay,  rendered  them  capable  of  carrying  out 
a  number  of  delicate  missions  and  of  playing  a  part  in 

1  Potthast,  7108.— The  work  of  this  bull  was  completed -by  that  of 
December  18,  1223  (The  original  of  the  Sacro  Convento  bears  Datum 
Later •ani  XV.  Kal.  jan.)    Fr  atr  em  Minor  urn  :  Potthast,  7123. 

-  2  Cel.,  3,  19  ;  Bon.,  95  ;  Spec,  18b  ;    Conform.,  171a,  t. 


284 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


the  varied  intrigues  for  which  the  greater  number  of 
Eoman  prelates  have  always  seemed  to  live.1  By  way 
of  protest  Francis  had  only  one  weapon,  his  example. 

One  day,  the  Speculum  relates,  the  Blessed  Francis  came  to  Rome  to 
see  the  Bishop  of  Ostia  (Ugolini),  and  after  having  remained  some  time 
at  his  house,  lie  went  also  to  visit  Cardinal  Leo,  who  had  a  great  devo- 
tion for  him. 

It  was  winter  ;  the  cold,  the  wind,  the  rain  made  any  journey  impos- 
sible, so  the  cardinal  begged  him  to  pass  a  few  days  in  his  house  and  to 
take  his  food  there,  like  the  other  poor  folk  who  came  there  to  eat. 
.  .  .  "I  will  give  you,"  he  added,  "  a  good  lodging,  quite  retired, 
where  if  you  like  you  may  pray  and  eat."  Then  Brother  Angelo,  one 
of  the  twelve  first  disciples,  who  lived  with  the  cardinal,  said  to  Francis  : 
"There  is,  close  by  here,  a  great  tower  standing  by  itself  and  very 
quiet;  you  will  be  there  as  in  a  hermitage."  Francis  went  to  see  it  and 
it  pleased  him.  Then,  returning  to  the  cardinal,  "  Monsignor,"  he 
said,  "  it  is  possible  that  I  may  pass  a  few  days  with  you."  The  latter 
was  very  joyful,  and  Brother  Angelo  went  to  prepare  the  tower  for  the 
Blessed  Francis  and  his  companion. 

But  the  very  first  night,  when  he  would  have  slept,  the  demons  came 
and  smote  him.  Calling  then  to  his  companion,  "  Brother,"  he  said, 
"  the  demons  have  come  and  smitten  me  witli  violence  ;  remain  near 
me,  I  beg,  for  I  am  afraid  here  alone." 

He  was  trembling  in  all  his  members,  like  one  who  has  a  fever. 
They  passed  the  night  both  without  sleeping.  "The  demons  are  com- 
missioned with  the  chastisements  of  God,"  said  Francis;  "as  a  podestà 
sends  his  executioner  to  punish  the  criminal,  so  God  sends  demons,  who 
in  this  are  his  ministers.  .  .  .  Why  has  he  sent  them  to  me  ?  Per- 
haps this  is  the  reason  :  The  cardinal  desired  to  be  kind  to  me,  and  I 
have  truly  great  need  of  repose,  but  the  Brothers  who  are  out  in  the 
world,  suffering  hunger  and  a  thousand  tribulations,  and  also  those 
others  who  are  in  hermitages  or  in  miserable  houses,  when  they  hear  of 
my  sojourn  with  a  cardinal  will  be  moved  to  repine.  '  We  endure  all 
privations,'  they  will  say,  '  while  he  has  all  that  he  can  desire  ;  '  but  I 
ought  to  give  them  a  good  example— that  is  my  true  mission."    .    .  . 

Early  next  morning,  therefore  he  quitted  the  tower,  and  having  told 
the  cardinal  all,  took  leave  of  him  and  returned  to  the  hermitage  of 
Monte  Colombo,  near  Rieti.  "  They  think  me  a  holy  man,"  lie  said, 
"  and  see,  it  needed  demons  to  cast  me  out  of  prison."  2 

1  2  Cel.,  3,  61  and  62.  Cf.  Eccl.,  6,  the  account  of  Rod.  de  Rosa.  t 
8  Spec,  47b  ff.;  2  Cel.,  3,  61  ;  Bon.,  84  and  85. 


THE  BROTHERS  MIXOR  AXD  LEARXIXG  285 


This  story,  notwithstanding  its  strange  coloring,  shows 
plainly  how  strong  was  his  instinct  for  independence. 
To  compare  the  hospitality  of  a  cardinal  to  an  imprison- 
ment !  He  spoke  better  than  he  knew,  characterizing  in 
one  word  the  relation  of  the  Church  to  his  Order. 

The  lark  was  not  dead  ;  in  spite  of  cold  and  the  north 
wind  it  gayly  took  its  flight  to  the  vale  of  Eieti. 

It  was  mid-December.  An  ardent  desire  to  observe  to 
the  life  the  memories  of  Christmas  had  taken  possession 
of  Francis.  He  opened  his  heart  to  one  of  his  friends, 
the  knight  Giovanni  di  Greccio,  who  undertook  the  nec- 
essary preparations. 

The  imitation  of  Jesus  has  in  all  times  been  the  very 
centre  of  Christianity  ;  but  one  must  be  singularly  spir- 
itual to  be  satisfied  with  the  imitation  of  the  heart. 
With  most  men  there  is  need  that  this  should  be  pre- 
ceded and  sustained  by  an  external  imitation.  It  is 
indeed  the  spirit  that  gives  life,  but  it  is  only  in  the 
country  of  the  angels  that  one  can  say  that  the  flesh 
profiteth  nothing. 

In  the  Middle  Ages  a  religious  festival  was  before  all 
things  else  a  representation,  more  or  less  faithful,  of  the 
event  which  it  recalled  ;  hence  the  santons  of  Provence, 
the  processions  of  the  Palme  sel,  the  Holy  Supper  of 
Maundy  Thursday,  the  Eoad  to  the  Cross  of  Good  Fri- 
day, the  drama  of  the  Resurrection  of  Easter,  and  the 
flaming  tow  of  Whitsunday.  Francis  was  too  thoroughly 
Italian  not  to  love  these  festivals  where  every  visible 
thing  speaks  of  God  and  of  his  love. 

The  population  of  Greccio  and  its  environs  was,  there- 
fore, convoked,  as  well  as  the  Brothers  from  the  neighbor- 
ing monasteries.  On  the  evening  of  the  vigil  of  Christ- 
mas one  might  have  seen  the  faithful  hastening  to  the 
hermitage  by  every  path  with  torches  in  their  hands, 
making  the  forests  ring  with  their  joyful  hymns. 


286 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Everyone  was  rejoicing — Francis  most  of  all.  The 
knight  had  prepared  a  stable  with  straw,  and  brought  an 
ox  and  an  ass,  whose  breath  seemed  to  give  warmth  to 
the  poor  bambino,  benumbed  with  the  cold.  At  the 
sight  the  saint  felt  tears  of  pity  bedew  his  face  ;  he  was 
no  longer  in  Greccio,  his  heart  was  in  Bethlehem. 

Finally  they  began  to  chant  matins  ;  then  the  mass  was 
begun,  and  Francis,  as  deacon,  read  the  Gospel.  Already 
hearts  were  touched  by  the  simple  recital  of  the  sacred 
legend  in  a  voice  so  gentle  and  so  fervent,  but  when  he 
preached,  his  emotion  soon  overcame  the  audience  ;  his 
voice  had  so  unutterable  a  tenderness  that  they  also  for- 
got everything,  and  were  living  over  again  the  feeling  of 
the  shepherds  of  Judea  who  in  those  old  days  went  to 
adore  the  God  made  man,  born  in  a  stable.1 

Toward  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century,  the  author 
of  the  Stabat  Mater  dolorosa,  Giacopone  dei  Todi,  that 
Franciscan  of  genius  who  spent  a  part  of  his  life  in  dun- 
geons, inspired  by  the  memory  of  Greccio,  composed  an- 
other Stabat,  that  of  joy,  Stabat  Mater  speciosa.  This 
hymn  of  Mary  beside  the  manger  is  not  less  noble  than 
that  of  Mary  at  the  foot  of  the  cross.  The  sentiment  is 
even  more  tender,  and  it  is  hard  to  explain  its  neglect 
except  by  an  unjust  caprice -of  fate. 

Stabat  Mater  speciosa 
Juxtum  fcenurn  gaudiosa 
Dura  jacebat  parvulus. 

Quae  gaudebat  et  ridebat 
Exsultabat  cum  videbat 
Nati  partum  inclyti. 

Fac  me  vere  congaudere 
Jesulino  coliserere 
Donee  ego  vixero.2 

ll  Cel.,  84-87  ;  Bon.,  149. 

2  This  little  poem  was  published  entire  by  M.  Ozanam  in  vol.  v.  of  his 
works,  p.  184. 


CHAPTER  XYII 


THE  STIGMATA 
1224 

The  upper  valley  of  the  Arno  forms  in  the  very  centre 
of  Italy  a  country  apart,  the  Casentino,  which  through 
centuries  had  its  own  life,  somewhat  like  an  island  in  the 
midst  of  the  ocean. 

The  river  flows  out  from  it  by  a  narrow  defile  at  the 
south,  and  on  all  other  sides  the  Apennines  encircle  it 
with  a  girdle  of  inaccessible  mountains.1 

This  plain,  some  ten  leagues  in  diameter,  is  enlivened 
with  picturesque  villages,  finely  posted  on  hillocks  at  the 
base  of  which  flows  the  stream  ;  here  are  Bibbiena,  Poppi, 
the  antique  Eomena  sung  by  Dante,  the  Camaldoli,  and 
up  there  on  the  crest  Chiusi,  long  ago  the  capital  of  the 
country,  with  the  ruins  of  Count  Orlando's  castle. 

The  people  are  charming  and  refined  ;  the  mountains 
have  sheltered  them  from  wars,  and  on  every  side  we 
see  the  signs  of  labor,  prosperity,  a  gentle  gayety.  At 
any  moment  we  might  fancy  ourselves  transported  into 
some  valley  of  the  Yivarais  or  Provence.  The  vegetation 
on  the  borders  of  the  Amo  is  thoroughly  tropical  ;  the 
olive  and  the  mulberry  marry  with  the  vine.  On  the 
lower  hill-slopes  are  wheat  fields  divided  by  meadows  ; 

1  Tlie  passes  that  give  access  to  the  Casentino  have  all  about  one 
thousand  metres  of  altitude.  Until  the  most  recent  years  there  was 
no  road  properly  so  called. 


288 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


tHen  come  the  chestnuts  and  the  oaks,  higher  still  the 
pine,  the  fir,  the  larch,  and  above  all  the  bare  rock. 

Among  all  the  peaks  there  is  one  which  especially 
attracts  the  attention  ;  instead  of  a  rounded  and  so  to 
say  flattened  top,  it  uplifts  itself  slender,  proud,  isolated  ; 
it  is  the  Verna.1 

One  might  think  it  an  immense  rock  fallen  from  the 
sky.  It  is  in  fact  an  erratic  block  set  there,  a  little  like  a 
petrified  Noah's  ark  on  the  summit  of  Mount  Ararat. 
The  basaltic  mass,  perpendicular  on  all  sides,  is  crowned 
with  a  plateau  planted  with  pines  and  gigantic  beeches, 
and  accessible  only  by  a  footpath.2 

Such  was  the  solitude  which  Orlando  had  given  to 
Francis,  and  to  which  Francis  had  already  many  a  time 
come  for  quiet  and  contemplation. 

Seated  upon  the  few  stones  of  the  Penna,3  he  heard 
only  the  whispering  of  the  wind  among  the  trees,  but  in 
the  splendor  of  the  sunrise  or  the  sunset  he  could  see 
nearly  all  the  districts  in  which  he  had  sown  the  seed  of 
the  gospel  :  the  Romagna  and  the  March  of  Ancona,  los- 
ing themselves  on  the  horizon  in  the  waves  of  the  Adri- 
atic ;  Umbria,  and  farther  away,  Tuscany,  vanishing  in 
the  waters  of  the  Mediterranean. 

The  impression  on  this  height  is  not  crushing  like  that 
which  one  has  in  the  Alps  :  a  feeling  infinitely  calm  and 

1  In  France  Mount  Aiguille,  one  of  the  seven  wonders  of  Dauphiny, 
presents  the  same  aspect  and  the  same  geological  formation.  St.  Odile 
also  recalls  the  Verna.  but  is  very  much  smaller. 

2  The  summit  has  an  altitude  of  1269  metres.  In  Italian  they  call  it 
the  Verna,  in  Latin  Aliernm.  The  etymology,  which  has  tested  the 
acuteness  of  the  learned,  appears  to  be  very  simple  ;  the  verb  vernare, 
used  by  Dante,  signifies  make  cold,  freeze. 

3  Name  of  the  highest  point  on  the  plateau.  Hardly  three-quarters 
of  an  hour  from  the  monastery,  and  not  two  hours  and  a  half,  as  these 
worthy  anchorites  believed.  This  is  said  for  the  benefit  of  tourists  .  .  . 
and  pilgrims. 


THE  STIGMATA 


289 


sweet  flows  over  you  ;  you  are  high  enough  to  judge  of 
men  from  above,  not  high  enough  to  forget  their  exist- 
ence. 

Besides  the  wide  horizons,  Francis  found  there  other 
objects  of  delight  ;  in  this  forest,  one  of  the  noblest  in 
Europe,  live  legions  of  birds,  which  never  having  been 
hunted  are  surprisingly  tame.1  Subtile  perfumes  arise 
from  the  ground,  and  in  the  midst  of  borage  and  lichens 
frail  and  exquisite  cyclamens  blossom  in  fantastic  va- 
riety. 

He  desired  to  return  thither  after  the  chapter  of  1224. 
This  meeting,  held  in  the  beginning  of  June,  was  the  last 
at  which  he  was  present.  The  new  Rule  was  ✓there  put 
into  the  hands  of  the  ministers,  and  the  mission  to 
England  decided  upon. 

It  was  in  the  early  days  of  August  that  Francis  took* 
his  way  toward  Yerna,    With  him  were  only  a  few 
Brothers,  Masseo,  Angelo,  and  Leo.    The  first  had  been 
charged  to  direct  the  little  band,  and  spare  him  all  duties 
except  that  of  prayer 2 

They  had  been  two  days  on  the  road  when  it  became 
necessary  to  seek  for  an  ass  for  Francis,  who  was  too 
much  enfeebled  to  go  farther  on  foot. 

The  Brothers,  in  asking  for  this  service,  had  not  con- 
cealed the  name  of  their  master,  and  the  peasant,  to 
whom  they  had  addressed  themselves  respectfully,  asked 
leave  to  guide  the  beast  himself.  After  going  on  a 
certain  time,  "  Is  it  true,"  he  said,  "  that  you  are 
Brother  Francis  of  Assisi?"    "Very  well,"  he  went  on, 

1  The  forest  has  been  preserved  as  a  relic.  Alexander  IV.  fulmi- 
nated excommunication  against  whomever  should  cut  down  the  firs  of 
Yerna.  As  to  the  birds,  it  is  enough  to  pass  a  day  at  the  monastery  to 
be  amazed  at  their  number  and  variety.  M.  C.  Beni  has  begun  at  Stia 
(in  Casentino)  an  ornithological  collection  which  already  includes  more 
than  five  hundred  and  fifty  varieties. 
K-  1  Cel.,  91  ;  Bon.,  188  ;  Fior.  i.,  consid. 
19 


290 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


after  the  answer  in  the  affirmative,  "  apply  yourself  to  be 
as  good  as  folk  say  you  are,  that  they  may  not  be  de- 
ceived in  their  expectation  ;  that  is  my  advice."  Francis 
immediately  got  down  from  his  beast  and,  prostrating 
himself  before  the  peasant,  thanked  him  warmly.1 

Meanwhile  the  warmest  hour  of  the  day  had  come  on. 
The  peasant,  exhausted  with  fatigue,  little  by  little  forgot 
his  surprise  and  joy  ;  one  does  not  feel  the  burning  of 
thirst  the  less  for  walking  beside  a  saint.  He  had  begun 
to  regret  his  kindness,  when  Francis  pointed  with  his 
linger  to  a  spring,  unknown  till  then,  and  which  has  never 
since  been  seen.2 

At  last  they  arrived  at  the  foot  of  the  last  precipice. 
Before  scaling  it  they  paused  to  rest  a  little  under  a 
great  oak,  and  immediately  flocks  of  birds  gathered 
around  them,  testifying  their  joy  by  songs  and  flutterings 
of  their  wings.  Hovering  around  Francis,  they  alighted 
on  his  head,  his  shoulders,  or  his  arms.  "  I  see,"  he  said 
joyfulry  to  his  companions,  "  that  it  is  pleasing  to  our 
Lord  Jesus  that  we  live  in  this  solitary  mount,  since  our 
brothers  and  sisters  the  birds  have  shown  such  great 
delight  at  our  coming."  3 

This  mountain  was  at  once  his  Tabor  and  his  Calvary. 
We  must  not  wonder,  then,  that  legends  have  flourished 
here  even  more  numerously  than  at  any  other  period  of 
his  life  ;  the  greater  number  of  them  have  the  exquisite 
charm  of  the  little  flowers,  rosy  and  perfumed,  which 
hide  themselves  modestly  at  the  feet  of  the  fir-trees  of 
Verna. 

The  summer  nights  up  there  are  of  unparalleled  beauty  : 
nature,  stifled  by  the  heat  of  the  sun,  seems  then  to 
breathe  anew.    In  the  trees,  behind  the  rocks,  on  the 

1  Fior.  i.,  consid.:  Conform.,  176b,l. 

2  2  Cel.,  2,  15  ;  Bon.,  100.    Fior.  i.,  consid. 
8  Ron.,  118.    Fior.  i.,  consid. 


THE  STIGMATA 


291 


turf,  a  thousand  voices  rise  up,  sweetly  harmonizing  with 
the  murmur  of  the  great  woods;  but  among  all  these 
voices  there  is  not  one  which  forces  itself  upon  the 
attention,  it  is  a  melody  which  you  enjoy  without  listen- 
ing. You  let  your  eyes  wander  over  the  landscape,  still 
for  long  hours  illumined  with  hieratic  tints  by  the  de- 
parted star  of  day,  and  the  peaks  of  the  Apennines,  flooded 
with  rainbow  hues,  drop  down  into  your  soul  what  the 
Franciscan  poet  called  the  nostalgia  of  the  everlasting 
hills.1 

More  than  anyone  Francis  felt  it.  The  very  evening  of 
their  arrival,  seated  upon  a  mound  in  the  midst  of  his 
Brothers,  he  gave  them  his  directions  for  their  dwelling- 
place. 

The  quiet  of  nature  would  have  sufficed  to  sow  in  their 
hearts  some  germs  of  sadness,  and  the  voice  of  the 
master  harmonized  with  the  emotion  of  the  last  gleams 
of  light  ;  he  spoke  with  them  of  his  approaching  death, 
with  the  regret  of  the  laborer  overtaken  by  the  shades  of 
evening  before  the  completion  of  his  task,  with  the 
sighs  of  the  father  who  trembles  for  the  future  of  his 
children.2 

For  himself  he  desired  from  this  time  to  prepare  him- 
self for  death  by  prayer  and  contemplation  ;  and  he 
begged  them  to  protect  him  from  all  intrusion.  Or- 
lando,3 who  had  already  come  to  bid  them  welcome  and 
offer  his  services,  had  at  his  request  hastily  caused  a 
hut  of  boughs  to  be  made,  at  the  foot  of  a  great  beech. 
It  was  there  that  he  desired  to  dwell,  at  a  stone's  throw 
from  the  cells  inhabited  by  his  companions.  Brother  Leo 
was  charged  to  bring  him  each  day  that  which  he  would 
need. 

1  2  Cel.,  100.  2  Fior.  il,  consid. 

3  The  ruins  of  the  castle  of  Chiusi  are  three-quarters  of  au  hour  from 
Verna. 


292 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


He  retired  to  it  immediately  after  this  memorable  con- 
versation, but  several  days  later,  embarrassed  no  doubt 
by  the  pious  curiosity  of  the  friars,  who  watched  all  his 
movements,  he  went  farther  into  the  woods,  and  on  As- 
sumption Day  he  there  began  the  Lent  which  he  desired 
to  observe  in  honor  of  the  Archangel  Michael  and  the 
celestial  host. 

Genius  has  its  modesty  as  well  as  love.  The  poet,  the 
artist,  the  saint,  need  to  be  alone  when  the  Spirit  comes 
to  move  them.  Every  effort  of  thought,  of  imagination, 
or  of  will  is  a  prayer,  and  one  does  not  pray  in  public. 

Alas  for  the  man  who  has  not  in  his  inmost  heart  some 
secret  which  may  not  be  told,  because  it  cannot  be 
spoken,  and  because  if  it  were  spoken  it  could  not  be  un- 
derstood. Secretum  meum  mihi  !  Jesus  felt  it  deeply  : 
the  raptures  of  Tabor  are  brief  ;  they  may  not  be  told. 

Before  these  soul  mysteries  materialists  and  devotees 
often  meet  and  are  of  one  mind  in  demanding  precision 
in  those  things  which  can  the  least  endure  it. 

The  believer  asks  in  what  spot  on  the  Verna  Francis 
received  the  stigmata  ;  whether  the  seraph  which  appeared 
to  him  was  Jesus  or  a  celestial  spirit  ;  what  words  were 
spoken  as  he  imprinted  them  upon  him;1  and  he  no 
more  understands  that  hour  when  Francis  swooned  with 
woe  and  love  than  the  materialist,  who  asks  to  see  with 
his  eyes  and  touch  with  his  hands  the  gaping  wound. 

Let  us  try  to  avoid  these  extremes.  Let  us  hear  what 
the  documents  give  us,  and  not  seek  to  do  them  violence, 
to  wrest  from  them  what  they  do  not  tell,  what  they  can- 
not tell. 

1  Fior.  iv.  and  v.  consid.  These  two  considerations  appear  to  be  the 
result  of  a  reworking  of  the  primitive  document.  The  latter  no  douht 
included  the  three  former,  which  the  continuer  has  interpolated  and 
lengthened.  Cf.  Conform.,  231a,  I;  Spec.,  91b,  92a,  97;  A.  SS.,  pp. 
860  ff. 


THE  STIGMATA 


293 


They  show  us  Francis  distressed  for  the  future  of  the 
Order,  and  with  an  infinite  desire  for  new  spiritual  prog- 
ress. 

He  was  consumed  with  the  fever  of  saints,  that  need 
of  immolation  which  wrung  from  St.  Theresa  the  pas- 
sionate cry,  "Either  to  suffer  or  to  die  !  "  He  was  bit- 
terly reproaching  himself  with  not  haying  been  found 
worthy  of  martyrdom,  not  having  been  able  to  give  him- 
self for  Him  who  gave  himself  for  us. 

We  touch  here  upon  one  of  the  most  powerful  and 
mysterious  elements  of  the  Christian  life.  We  may  very 
easily  not  understand  it,  but  we  may  not  for  all  that  deny 
it.  It  is  the  root  of  true  mysticism.1  The  really  new 
thing  that  Jesus  brought  into  the  world  was  that,  feeling 
'himself  in  perfect  union  with  the  heavenly  Father,  he 
called  all  men  to  unite  themselves  to  him  and  through 
him  to  God  :  "I  am  the  vine,  and  ye  are  the  branches  ; 
he  who  abides  in  me  and  I  in  him  brings  forth  much 
fruit,  for  apart  from  me  ye  can  do  nothing." 

The  Christ  not  only  preached  this  union,  he  made  it 
felt.  On  the  evening  of  his  last  day  he  instituted  its 
sacrament,  and  there  is  probably  no  sect  which  denies 
that  communion  is  at  once  the  symbol,  the  principle,  and 
the  end  of  the  religious  life.  For  eighteen  centuries 
Christians  who  differ  on  everything  else  cannot  but  look 
with  one  accord  to  him  who  in  the  upper  chamber  insti- 
tuted the  rite  of  the  new  times. 

The  night  before  he  died  he  took  the  bread  and  brake 

1  In  current  language  we  often  include  under  the  word  mysticism  all 
the  tendencies — often  far  from  Christian— which  give  predominance  in 
the  religious  life  to  vague  poetic  elements,  impulses  of  the  heart.  The 
name  of  mystic  ought  to  be  applied  only  to  those  Christians  to  whom 
immediate  relations  with  Jesus  form  the  basis  of  the  religious  life.  In 
this  sense  St  Paul  (whose  theologico-philosophical  system  is  one  of  the 
most  powerful  efforts  of  the  human  mind  to  explain  sin  and  redemp- 
tion) is  at  the  same  time  the  prince  of  mystics. 


294 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


it  and  distributed  it  to  them,  saying,  "  Take  and  eat,  for 

THIS  IS  MY  BODY." 

Jesus,  while  presenting  union  with  himself  as  the  very 
foundation  of  the  new  life,1  took  care  to  point  out  to  his 
brethren  that  this  union  was  before  all  things  a  sharing 
in  his  work,  in  his  struggles,  and  his  sufferings  :  "  Let 
him  that  would  be  my  disciple  take  up  his  cross  and  fol- 
low me." 

St.  Paul  entered  so  perfectly  into  the  Master's  thought 
in  this  respect  that  he  uttered  a  few  years  later  this  cry 
of  a  mysticism  that  has  never  been  equalled:  "I  have 
been  crucified  with  Christ,  yet  I  live  ...  or  rather, 
it  is  not  I  who  live,  but  Christ  who  liveth  in  me."  This 
utterance  is  not  an  isolated  exclamation  with  him,  it  is 
the  very  centre  of  his  religious  consciousness,  and  he  goes 
so  far  as  to  say,  at  the  risk  of  scandalizing  many  a  Chris- 
tian :  "  I  fill  up  in  my  body  that  which  is  lacking  of  the 
sufferings  of  Christ,  for  his  body's  sake,  which  is  the 
Church." 

Perhaps  it  has  not  been  useless  to  enter  into  these 
thoughts,  to  show  to  what  point  Francis  during  the  last 
years  of  his  life,  where  he  renews  in  his  body  the  passion 
of  Christ,  is  allied  to  the  apostolic  tradition. 

In  the  solitudes  of  the  Verna,  as  formerly  at  St.  Da- 
mian,  Jesus  presented  himself  to  him  under  his  form  of 
the  Crucified  One,  the  man  of  sorrows.2 

That  this  intercourse  has  been  described  to  us  in  a 
poetic  and  inexact  form  is  nothing  surprising.  It  is  the 
contrary  that  would  be  surprising.    In  the  paroxysms 

1  He  did  not  desire  to  institute  a  religion,  for  he  felt  the  vanity  of  ob- 
servances and  dogmas.  (The  apostles  continued  to  frequent  the  Jewish 
temple.  Acts,  ii. ,  46  ;  iii.,  1  ;  v.,  25  ;  xxi.,  26.)  He  desired  to  inoculate 
the  world  with  a  new  life. 

2  2  Cel.,  3,  29  ;  cf.  1  Cel.,  115  ;  3  Soc,  13  and  14  ;  2  Cel.,  1,  6  ;  2  Cel., 
3,  123  and  131  ;  Bon.,  57  ;  124  ;  203  ;  204  ;  224  ;  225  ;  309  ;  310  ;  311  ; 
Conform.,  229b  ff. 


THE  STIGMATA 


295 


of  divine  love  there  are  ineffabilia  which,  far  from  being 
able  to  relate  them  or  make  them  understood,  we  can 
hardly  recall  to  our  own  minds. 

Francis  on  the  Yerna  was  even  more  absorbed  than 
usual  in  his  ardent  desire  to  suffer  for  Jesus  and  with 
him.  His  days  went  by  divided  between  exercises  of 
piety  in  the  humble  sanctuary  on  the  mountain-top  and 
meditation  in  the  depths  of  the  forest.  It  even  hap- 
pened to  him  to  forget  the  services,  and  to  remain  sev- 
eral days  alone  in  some  cave  of  the  rock,  going  over  in 
his  heart  the  memories  of  Golgotha.  At  other  times  he 
would  remain  for  long  hours  at  the  foot  of  the  altar, 
reading  and  re-reading  the  Gospel,  and  entreating  God 
to  show  him  the  way  in  which  he  ought  to  walk.1 

The  book  almost  always  opened  of  itself  to  the  story 
of  the  Passion,  and  this  simple  coincidence,  though  easy 
enough  to  explain,  was  enough  of  itself  to  excite  him. 

The  vision  of  the  Crucified  One  took  the  fuller  posses- 
sion of  his  faculties  as  the  day  of  the  Elevation  of  the 
Holy  Cross  drew  near  (September  14th),  a  festival  now 
relegated  to  the  background,  but  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury celebrated  with  a  fervor  and  zeal  very  natural  for  a 
solemnity  which  might  be  considered  the  patronal  fes- 
tival of  the  Crusades. 

Francis  doubled  his  fastings  and  prayers,  "  quite  trans- 
formed into  Jesus  by  love  and  compassion,"  says  one  of 
the  legends.  He  passed  the  night  before  the  festival 
alone  in  prayer,  not  far  from  the  hermitage.  In  the 
morning  he  had  a  vision.  In  the  rays  of  the  rising  sun, 
which  after  the  chill  of  night  came  to  revive  his  body,  he 
suddenly  perceived  a  strange  form. 

A  seraph,  with  outspread  wings,  flew  toward  him 
from  the  edge  of  the  horizon,  and  bathed  his  soul  in 
raptures  unutterable.  In  the  centre  of  the  vision  ap- 
1  1  Cel..  91-94;  Bon.,  189,  190. 


290 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


peared  a  cross,  and  the  seraph  was  nailed  upon  it. 
When  the  vision  disappeared,  he  felt  sharp  sufferings 
mingling  with  the  ecstasy  of  the  first  moments.  Stirred 
to  the  very  depths  of  his  being,  he  was  anxiously  seek- 
ing the  meaning  of  it  all,  when  he  perceived  upon  his 
body  the  stigmata  of  the  Crucified.1 

1  See  the  annotations  of  Brother  Leo  upon  the  autograph  of  St.  Francis 
(Crit.  Study,  p.  357)  and  1  Cel.,  94,  95  ;  Bon.,  191,  192,  193  (3  Soc,  69, 
70)  ;  Fior.  Hi.  consid.  Cf.  Auet.  vit.  sec;  A.  SS.,  p.  649.  It  is  to  be  noted 
that  Thomas  of  Celano  (1  Cel.,  95),  as  well  as  all  the  primitive  docu- 
ments, describe  the  stigmata  as  being  fleshy  excrescences,  recalling  in 
form  and  color  the  nails  with  which  the  limbs  of  Jesus  were  pierced. 
No  one  speaks  of  those  gaping,  sanguineous  wounds  which  were  imag- 
ined later.  Only  the  mark  at  the  side  was  a  wound,  whence  at  times 
exuded  a  little  blood.  Finally,  Thomas  of  Celano  says  that  after  the 
seraphic  vision  began  to  appear,  cœperunt  apparere  signa  clacorum.  Vide 
Appendix  :  Study  of  the  Stigmata. 


CHAPTER  XYIH 


THE  CAXTICLE  OF  THE  SUN 
Autumn,  1224 — Autumn,  1225 

The  morning  after  St.  Michael's  Day  (September  30, 
1224)  Francis  quitted  Yerna  and  went  to  Portiuncula. 
He  was  too  much  exhausted  to  think  of  making  the 
journey  on  foot,  and  Count  Orlando  put  a  horse  at  his 
disposal. 

We  can  imagine  the  emotion  with  which  he  bade  adieu 
to  the  mountain  on  which  had  been  unfolded  the  drama 
of  love  and  pain  which  had  consummated  the  union  of 
his  entire  being  with  the  Crucified  One.  a 

Amor,  amor,  Gesu  desideroso. 
Amor  voglio  morire, 
Te  abrazando 

Amor,  dolce  Gesu,  meo  sposo, 
Amor,  amor,  la  morte  te  domando, 
Amor,  amor,  Gesu  si  pietoso 
Tu  me  te  dai  in  te  transformato 
Pensa  ch'  io  vo  spasmando 
Non  so  o  io  me  sia 
Gesu  speranza  mia 
Ormai  va.  dormi  in  am  ore. 

So  sang  Giacopone  dei  Todi  in  the  raptures  of  a  like 
love.1 

1  Thirty-sixth  and  last  strophe  of  the  song 

Amor  de  car  it  a  de 
Perche  rrù liai  siferito? 

found  in  the  collection  of  St.  Francis's  works. 


298 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


If  we  are  to  believe  a  recently  published  document,1 
Brother  Masseo,  one  of  those  who  remained  on  the  Yerna, 
made  a  written  account  of  the  events  of  this  day. 

They  set  out  early  in  the  morning.  Francis,  after 
having  given  his  directions  to  the  Brothers,  had  had  a 
look  and  a  word  for  everything  around;  for  the  rocks, 
the  flowers,  the  trees,  for  brother  hawk,  a  privileged 
character  which  was  authorized  to  enter  his  cell  at  all 
times,  and  which  came  every  morning,  with  the  first 
glimmer  of  dawn,  to  remind  him  of  the  hour  of  service.2 

Then  the  little  band  set  forth  upon  the  path  leading  to 
Monte -Acuto.'  Arrived  at  the  gap  from  whence  one  gets 
the  last  sight  of  the  Verna,  Francis  alighted  from  his 
horse,  and  kneeling  upon  the  earth,  his  face  turned  tow- 
ard the  mountain,  "  Adieu,"  he  said,  "  mountain  of  God, 
sacred  mountain,  mons  coagulatus,  mons  pinguis,  mons  in 
quo  bene  placitum  est  Deo  habitare  ;  adieu  Monte- Verna, 
may  God  bless  thee,  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy 
Spirit  ;  abide  in  peace  ;  we  shall  never  see  one  another 
more." 

Has  not  this  artless  scene  a  delicious  and  poignant 
sweetness  ?  He  must  surely  have  uttered  these  words, 
in  which  suddenly  the  Italian  does  not  suffice  and  Fran- 

1  By  the  Abbé  Ainoni,  at  the  close  of  his  edition  of  the  Fioretti,  Rome, 
1  vol.,  12rao,  1889,  pp.  390-392.  We  can  but  once  more  regret  the 
silence  of  the  editor  as  to  the  manuscript  whence  he  has  drawn  these 
charming  pages.  Certain  indications  seem  unfavorable  to  the  author 
having  written  it  before  the  second  half  of  the  thirteenth  century  ;  on 
the  other  hand,  the  object  of  a  forgery  is  not  evident.  An  apochryphal 
piece  always  betrays  itself  by  some  interested  purpose,  but  here  the 
story  is  of  an  infantine  simplicity. 

2  2  Cel.,  3,  104  ;  Bon.,  119  ;  Fior.  ii.  consid. 

3  Parti  san  Francesco  per  Monte- Acuto  prendendo  la  via  di  Monte-  Ar- 
coppe  e  del  foresto.  This  road  from  the  Verna  to  Borgo  San-Sepolcro  is 
far  from  being  the  shortest  or  the  easiest,  for  instead  of  leading  directly 
to  the  plain  it  lingers  for  long  hours  among  the  hills.  Is  not  all  Francis 
in  this  choice  ? 


THE  CANTICLE  OE  THE  SUN 


299 


eis  is  obliged  to  resort  to  the  mystical  language  of  the 
breviary  to  express  his  feelings. 

A  few  minutes  later  the  rock  of  the  ecstacy  had  disap- 
peared. The  descent  into  the  valley  is  rapid.  The  Broth- 
ers had  decided  to  spend  the  night  at  Monte-Casale,  the 
little  hermitage  above  Borgo  San-Sepolcro.  All  of  them, 
even  those  who  were  to  remain  on  the  Yerna,  were  still 
following  their  master.  As  for  him,  absorbed  in  thought 
he  had  become  entirely  oblivious  to  what  was  going  on, 
and  did  not  even  perceive  the  noisy  enthusiasm  which 
his  passage  aroused  in  the  numerous  villages  along  the 
Tiber. 

At  Borgo  San-Sepolcro  he  received  a  real  ovation  with- 
out even  then  coming  to  himself  ;  but  when  they  had 
some  time  quitted  the  town,  he  seemed  suddenly  to 
awake,  and  asked  his  companion  if  they  ought  not  soon 
to  arrive  there.1 

The  first  evening  at  Monte  Casale  was  marked  by  a 
miracle.  Francis  healed  a  friar  who  was  possessed.2 
The  next  morning,  having  decided  to  pass  several  days 
in  this  hermitage,  he  sent  the  brothers  back  to  the  Yerna, 
and  with  them  Count  Orlando's  horse. 

In  one  of  the  villages  through  which  they  had  passed 
the  day  before  a  woman  had  been  lying  several  days 
*  between  death  and  life  unable  to  give  birth  to  her  child. 
Those  about  her  had  only  learned  of  the  passage  of  the 
saint  through  their  village  when  he  was  too  far  distant 
to  be  overtaken.  We  may  judge  of  the  joy  of  these  poor 
people  when  the  rumor  was  spread  that  he  was  about  to 
return.  They  went  to  meet  him,  and  were  terribly  dis- 
appointed on  finding  only  the  friars.  Suddenly  an  idea 
occurred  to  them  :  taking  the  bridle  of  the  horse  con- 
secrated by  the  touch  of  Francis's  hands,  they  carried  it 

1  2  Cel.,  3,  41  ;  Bon.,  141  ;  Fior.  iv.  consid. 
-  1  Cel.,  G3  and  84  ;  Fior.  iv.  consid. 


300  LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 

to  the  sufferer,  who,  having  laid  it  upon  her  body,  gave 
birth  to  her  child  without  the  slightest  pain.1 

This  miracle,  established  by  narratives  entirely  au- 
thentic, shows  the  degree  of  enthusiasm  felt  by  the 
people  for  the  person  of  Francis.  As  for  him,  after  a 
few  days  at  Monte-Casale,  he  set  out  with  Brother  Leo 
for  Città  di  Castello.  He  there  healed  a  woman  suffer- 
ing from  frightful  nervous  disorders,  and  remained  an 
entire  mouth  preaching  in  this  city  and  its  environs. 
When  he  once  more  set  forth  winter  had  almost  closed 
in.  A  peasant  lent  him  his  ass,  but  the  roads  were  so 
bad  that  they  were  unable  to  reach  any  sort  of  shelter  be- 
fore nightfall.  The  unhappy  travellers  were  obliged  to 
pass  the  night  under  a  rock  ;  the  shelter  was  more  than 
rudimentary,  the  wind  drifted  the  snow  in  upon  them,  and 
nearly  froze  the  unlucky  peasant,  who  with  abominable 
oaths  heaped  curses  on  Francis  ;  but  the  latter  replied 
with  such  cheerfulness  that  he  made  him  at  last  forget 
both  the  cold  and  his  bad  humor. 

On  the  morrow  the  saint  reached  Portiuncula.  He 
seems  to  have  made  only  a  brief  halt  there,  and  to  have 
set  forth  again  almost  immediately  to  evangelize  South- 
ern Umbria. 

It  is  impossible  to  follow  him  in  this  mission.  Brother 
Elias  accompanied  him,  but  so  feeble  was  he  that  Elias 
could  not  conceal  his  uneasiness  as  to  his  life.2 

Ever  since  his  return  from  Syria  (August,  1220),  he 
had  been  growing  continually  weaker,  but  his  fervor  had 
increased  from  day  to  day.  Nothing  could  check  him, 
neither  suffering  nor  the  entreaties  of  the  Brothers  ; 
seated  on  an  ass  he  would  sometimes  go  over  three  or 
four  villages  in  one  day.    Such  excessive  toil  brought  on 

1  1  Cel.,  70  ;  Fior.  iv.  consid. 

2  1  Cel.,  109;  69;  Bon.  208.  Perhaps  we  must  refer  to  this  circuit 
the  visit  to  Celano.    2  Cel.,  3,  30  ;  Spec,  22  ;  Bon.,  156  and  157. 


THE  CANTICLE  OF  THE  SUN 


301 


an  infirmity  even  more  painful  than  any  he  had  hitherto 
suffered  from  :  he  was  threatened  with  loss  of  sight.1 

Meanwhile  a  sedition  had  forced  Honorius  III.  to 
leave  Eome  (end  of  April,  1225).  After  passing  a  few 
weeks  at  Tivoli,  he  established  himself  at  Bieti,  where  he 
remained  until  the  end  of  1226.' 

The  pope's  arrival  had  drawn  to  this  city,  with  the 
entire  pontifical  court,  several  physicians  of  renown  ; 
Cardinal  Ugolini,  who  had  come  in  the  pope's  train, 
hearing  of  Francis's  malady,  summoned  him  to  Bieti  for 
treatment.  But  notwithstanding  Brother  Elias's  en- 
treaties Francis  hesitated  a  long  time  as  to  accepting  the 
invitation.3  It  seemed  to  him  that  a  sick  man  has  but 
one  thing  to  do  ;  place  himself  purely  and  simply  in  the 
hands  of  the  heavenly  Father.  What  is  pain  to  a  soul 
that  is  fixed  in  God  ! 4 

Elias,  however,  at  last  overcame  his  objections,  and 
the  journey  was  determined  upon,  but  first  Francis  de- 
sired to  go  and  take  leave  of  Clara,  and  enjoy  a  little 
rest  near  her. 

He  remained  at  St.  Damian  much  longer  than  he  had 
proposed  to  do  5  (end  of  July  to  beginning  of  September, 
1225).  His  arrival  at  this  beloved  monastery  was 
marked  by  a  terrible  aggravation  of  his  malady.  For  fif- 
teen days  he  was  so  completely  blind  that  he  could  not 
even  distinguish  light.  The  care  lavished  upon  him 
produced  no  result,  since  every  day  he  passed  long  hours 
in  weeping — tears  of  penitence,  he  said,  but  also  of 
regret.6    Ah,  how  different  they  were  from  those  tears  of 


1  1  Cel.,  97  and  98  ;  2  Cel  ,  3,  137;  Bon.,  205  and  206. 

2  Richard  of  St.  Gerinano,  aim.  1225.    Cf.  Potthast,  7400  ff. 

3  1  Cel.,  98  and  99  ;  2  Cel.,  3,  137;  Fior.,  19. 

4  2  Cel.,  3,  110  ;  Rule  of  1221,  cap.  10. 

5  See  the  reference  to  the  sources  after  the  Canticle  of  the  Sun. 

6  2  Cel.  ..  3;  138. 


302 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


his  moments  of  inspiration  and  emotion,  which  had 
flowed  over  a  countenance  all  illumined  with  joy  !  They 
had  seen  him,  in  such  moments,  take  up  two  bits  of 
wood,  and,  accompanying  himself  with  this  rustic  violin, 
improvise  French  songs  in  which  he  would  pour  out  the 
abundance  of  his  heart.1 

But  the  radiance  of  genius  and  hope  had  become 
dimmed.  Rachel  weeps  for  her  children,  and  will  not  be 
comforted  because  they  are  not.  There  are  in  the  tears 
of  Francis  this  same  quia  non  sunt  for  his  spiritual  sons. 

But  if  there  are  irremediable  pains  there  are  none 
which  may  not  be  at  once  elevated  and  softened,  when 
we  endure  them  at  the  side  of  those  who  love  us. 

In  this  respect  his  companions  could  not  be  of  much 
help  to  him.  Moral  consolations  are  possible  only  from 
our  peers,  or  when  two  hearts  are  united  by  a  mystical 
passion  so  great  that  they  mingle  and  understand  one 
another. 

"  Ah,  if  the  Brothers  knew  what  I  suffer,"  St.  Francis 
said  a  few  days  before  the  impression  of  the  stigmata, 
"  with  what  pity  and  compassion  they  would  be  moved  !  " 

But  they,  seeing  him  who  had  laid  cheerfulness  upon 
them  as  a  duty  becoming  more  and  more  sad  and  keep- 
ing aloof  from  them,  imagined  that  he  was  tortured  with 
temptations  of  the  devil.2 

Clara  divined  that  which  could  not  be  uttered.  At 
St.  Damian  her  friend  was  looking  back  over  all  the  past  : 
what  memories  lived  again  in  a  single  glance  !  Here, 
the  olive-tree  to  which,  a  brilliant  cavalier,  he  had  fast- 
ened his  horse  ;  there,  the  stone  bench  where  his  friend, 
the  priest  of  the  poor  chapel,  used  to  sit  ;  yonder,  the 
hiding-place  in  which  he  had  taken  refuge  from  the  pater- 

1  This  incident  appeared  to  the  authors  so  peculiar  that  they  em- 
phasized it  with  an  ut  oculis  videmus.    2  Cel.,  3,  67  ;  Spec,  119a. 
'Spec,  123a;  2  Cel.,  3,  58. 


THE  CANTICLE  OF  THE  SUtf 


303 


ual  wrath,  and,  above  all,  the  sanctuary  with  the  myste- 
rious crucifix  of  the  decisive  hour. 

In  living  over  these  pictures  of  the  radiant  past,  Fran- 
cis aggravated  his  pain  ;  yet  they  spoke  to  him  of  other 
things  than  death  and  regret.  Clara  was  there,  as  stead- 
fast, as  ardent  as  ever.  Long  ago  transformed  by  admi- 
ration, she  was  now  transfigured  by  compassion.  Seated 
at  the  feet  of  him  whom  she  loved  with  more  than  earthly 
love  she  felt  the  soreness  of  his  soul,  and  the  failing  of  his 
heart.  After  that,  what  did  it  matter  that  Francis's  tears 
became  more  abundant  to  the  point  of  making  him  blind 
for  a  fortnight  ?  Soothing  would  come  ;  the  sister  of 
consolation  would  give  him  peace  once  more. 

And  first  she  kept  him  near  her,  and,  herself  taking 
part  in  the  labor,  she  made  him  a  large  cell  of  reeds  in 
the  monastery  garden,  that  he  might  be  entirely  at  lib- 
erty as  to  his  movements. 

How  could  he  refuse  a  hospitality  so  thoroughly  Fran- 
ciscan ?  It  was  indeed  only  too  much  so  :  legions  of  rats 
and  mice  infested  this  retired  spot  ;  at  night  they  ran 
over  Francis's  bed  with  an  infernal  uproar,  so  that  he 
could  find  no  repose  from  his  sufferings.  But  he  soon 
forgot  all  that  when  near  his  sister-friend.  Once  again 
she  gave  back  to  him  faith  and  courage.  "  A  single 
sunbeam,"  he  used  to  say,  "  is  enough  to  drive  away 
many  shadows  !  " 

Little  by  little  the  man  of  the  former  days  began  to 
show  himself,  and  at  times  the  Sisters  would  hear,  min- 
gling with  the  murmur  of  the  olive  trees  and  pines,  the 
echo  of  unfamiliar  songs,  which  seemed  to  come  from  the 
cell  of  reeds. 

One  day  he  had  seated  himself  at  the  monastery  table 
after  a  long  conversation  with  Clara,  The  meal  had 
hardly  begun  when  suddenly  he  seemed  to  be  rapt  away 
in  ecstasy. 


304 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


"  Laudato  sia  lo  Signore  !  "  he  cried  on  coming  to  him- 
self.   He  had  just  composed  the  Canticle  of  the  Sun.1 

text  2 

Incipiunt  Laudes  Ceeatueaeum 
Quas  fecit  Beatus  Feanciscus  ad  laudem  et  honoeem 
Dei 

Cum  esset  ixfiemus  ad  Sanctum  Damianum. 

Altissimu,  onnipotente,  bon  signore, 
tue  so  le  lande  la  gloria  e  l'onore  et  onne  benedictione. 
Ad  te  sole,  altissimo,  se  konfano 
et  nullu  homo  ene  dignu  te  mentovare. 

Laudato  sie,  mi  signore,  cum  tucte  le  tue  creature 
spetialmente  messor  lo  frate  sole, 
lo  quale  jorna,  et  illumini  per  lui  ; 
Et  ellu  è  bellu  e  radiante  cum  grande  splendore  ; 
de  te,  altissimo,  porta  significatione. 

Laudato  si,  mi  signore,  per  sora  luna  e  le  stelle, 
in  celu  1'  ài  formate  clarite  et  pretiose  et  belle. 

Laudato  si,  mi  signore,  per  frate  vento 
et  per  aere  et  nubilo  et  sereno  et  onne  tempo, 
per  le  quale  a  le  tue  creature  dai  sustentamento. 

1  I  have  combined  Celano's  narrative  witli  that  of  the  Conformities. 
The  details  given  in  the  latter  document  appear  to  me  entirely  worthy 
of  faith.  It  is  easy  to  see,  however,  why  Celano  omitted  them,  and  it 
would  be  difficult  to  explain  how  they  could  have  been  later  invented. 
2  Cel.,  3,  138;  Conform.,  42b,  2  ;  119b,  1;  184b,  2  ;  239a,  2;  Spec, 
123a  ff.  ;  Fior.t  19. 

"  After  the  Assisan  MS..  338,  f°  33a.  Vide  p.  354.  Father  Panfilo 
da  Magliano  has  already  published  it  after  this  manuscript  :  Storia  com- 
pendiosa  di  San  Francesco,  Rome,  2  vols.,  18mo,  1874-1876.  The  Con- 
formities, 202b,  2-203a  1,  give  a  version  of  it  which  differs  from  this 
only  by  insignificant  variations.  The  learned  philologue  Monaci  has 
established  a  very  remarkable  critical  text  in  his  Crestomazia  italiana 
dei  primi  secoH.  Citta  di  Castello,  fas.  i.,  1889,  8vo,  pp.  29-31.  Tins 
thoroughly  scrupulous  work  dispenses  me  from  indicating  manuscripts 
and  editions  more  at  length. 


THE  CANTICLE  OF  THE  SUN 


305 


Laudato  si,  mi  signore,  -pev  sor  acqua, 
la  quale  è  multo  utile  et  liumele  et  pretiosa  et  casta. 

Laudato  si,  mi  signore,  per  frate  focu, 
per  lo  quale  ennallumini  la  nocte, 
ed  ello  è  bello  et  jucundo  et  robustoso  et  forte. 

Laudato  si,  mi  signore,  per  sora  nostra  matre  terra, 
la  quale  ne  sustenta  et  governa 
et  produce  diversi  fructi  con  colorite  nori  et  herba. 

Laudato  si,  mi  signore,  per  quilli  ke  perdonano  per 
lo  tuo  am  ore 
et  sostengo  infirmitate  et  tribulation  e. 
beati  quilli  ke  sosterrano  in  pace, 
ka  da*te,  altissimo,  sirano  incoronati. 

Laudato  si,  mi  signore,  per  sora  nostra  morte  corporate, 
de  la  quale  nullu  homo  vivente  po  skappare  : 
guai  a  quilli  ke  morrano  ne  le  peccata  mortali  ; 
beati  quilli  ke  se  trovarà  ne  le  tue  sanctissime  voluntati, 
ka  la  morte  secunda  nol  farrà  maie. 

Laudate  et  benedicete  mi  signore  et  rengratiate 
et  serviteli  cum  grande  liumilitate. 

TRANSLATION 1 

0  most  high,  almighty,  good  Lord  God,  to  thee  belong 
praise,  glory,  honor,  and  all  blessing  ! 

Praised  be  my  Lord  God  with  all  his  creatures,  and 
specially  our  brother  the  sun,  who  brings  us  the  day  and 
who  brings  us  the  light  ;  fair  is  he  and  shines  with  a 
very  great  splendor  :  O  Lord,  he  signifies  to  us  thee  ! 

Praised  be  my  Lord  for  our  sister  the  moon,  and  for 
the  stars,  the  which  he  has  set  clear  and  lovely  in  heaven. 

Praised  be  my  Lord  for  our  brother  the  wind,  and  for 
air  and  cloud,  calms  and  all  weather  by  the  which  thou 
upholdest  life  in  all  creatures. 

1  Matthew  Arnold,  Essays  in  Criticism,  First  Series.  Macmillan  & 
Company,  1883. 

20 


306 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FEANCIS 


Praised  be  my  Lord  for  our  sister  water,  who  is  very 
serviceable  unto  us  and  humble  and  precious  and  clean. 

Praised  be  my  Lord  for  our  brother  fire,  through 
whom  thou  givest  us  light  in  the  darkness  ;  and  he  is 
bright  and  pleasant  and  very  mighty  and  strong. 

Praised  be  my  Lord  for  our  mother  the  earth,  the 
which  doth  sustain  us  and  keep  us,  and  bringeth  forth 
divers  fruits  and  flowers  of  many  colors,  and  grass. 

Praised  be  my  Lord  for  all  those  who  pardon  one 
another  for  his  love's  sake,  and  who  endure  weakness 
and  tribulation  ;  blessed  are  they  who  peaceably  shall 
endure,  for  thou,  O  most  Highest,  shalt  give  them  a 
crown. 

Praised  be  my  •  Lord  for  our  sister,  the  death  of  the 
body,  from  which  no  man  escapeth.  Woe  to  him  who 
dieth  in  mortal  sin  !  Blessed  are  they  who  are  found 
walking  by  thy  most  holy  will,  for  the  second  death  shall 
have  no  power  to  do  them  harm. 

Praise  ye  and  bless  the  Lord,  and  give  thanks  unto 
him  and  serve  him  with  great  humility. 

Joy  had  returned  to  Francis,  joy  as  deep  as  ever.  For 
a  whole  week  he  forsook  his  breviary  and  passed  his  days 
in  repeating  the  Canticle  of  the  Sun. 

During  a  night  of  sleeplessness  he  had  heard  a  voice 
saying  to  him,"  If  thou  hadst  faith  as  a  grain  of  mustard 
seed,  thou  wTouldst  say  to  this  mountain,  1  Be  thou  re- 
moved from  there,'  and  it  would  move  away."  "Was  not 
the  mountain  that  of  his  sufferings,  the  temptation  to 
murmur  and  despair?  "Be  it,  Lord,  according  to  thy 
word,"  he  had  replied  with  all  his  heart,  and  immediately 
he  had  felt  that  he  was  delivered.1 

He  might  have  perceived  that  the  mountain  had  not 
greatly  changed  its  place,  but  for  several  days  he  had 
]  2  Cel.,  3,  58  ;  Spec,  123a. 


THE  CANTICLE  OE  THE  SUE" 


307 


turned  his  eyes  away  from  it,  he  had  been  able  to  forget 
its  existence. 

For  a  moment  he  thought  of  summoning  to  his  side 
Brother  Pacifico,  the  King  of  Yerse,  to  retouch  his  can- 
ticle ;  his  idea  was  to  attach  to  him  a  certain  number  of 
friars,  who  would  go  with  him  from  village  to  village, 
preaching.  After  the  sermon  they  would  sing  the  Hymn 
of  the  Sun  ;  and  they  were  to  close  by  saying  to  the 
crowd  gathered  around  them  in  the  public  places,  "  We 
are  God's  jugglers.  We  desire  to  be  paid  for  our  sermon 
and  our  song.  Our  payment  shall  be  that  you  persevere 
in  penitence." 1 

"  Is  it  not  in  fact  true,"  he  would  add,  "  that  the  ser- 
vants of  God  are  really  like  jugglers,  intended  to  revive 
the  hearts  of  men  and  lead  them  into  spiritual  joy  ?  " 

The  Francis  of  the  old  raptures  had  come  back,  the 
layman,  the  poet,  the  artist. 

The  Canticle  of  the  Creatures  is  very  noble  :  it  lacks, 
however,  one  strophe  ;  if  it  was  not  upon  Francis's  lips, 
it  was  surely  in  his  heart  : 

Be  praised,  Lord,  for  Sister  Clara  ; 

thou  hast  made  her  silent,  active,  and  sagacious; 

and  by  her  thy  light  shines  in  our  hearts. 


1  Spec. ,  124a.    Cf.  Miscellanea  (1889),  iv. ,  p.  88. 


CHAPTER  XIX 


THE  LAST  YEAR 
September,  1225— End  of  September,  1226 

What  did  Ugolini  think  when  they  told  him  that  Fran- 
cis was  planning  to  send  his  friars,  transformed  into 
JocuJatores  Domini,  to  sing  up  and  down  the  country  the 
Canticle  of  Brother  Sun  ?  Perhaps  he  never  heard  of  it. 
His  protégé  finally  decided  to  accept  his  invitation  and  left 
St.  Damian  in  the  course  of  the  month  of  September. 

The  landscape  which  lies  before  the  eyes  of  the  trav- 
eller from  Assisi,  when  he  suddenly  emerges  upon  the 
plain  of  Rieti,  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  in  Europe. 
From  Terni  the  road  follows  the  sinuous  course  of  the 
Velino,  passes  not  far  from  the  famous  cascades,  whose 
clouds  of  mist  are  visible,  and  then  plunges  into  the  de- 
files in  whose  depths  the  torrent  rushes  noisily,  choked 
by  a  vegetation  as  luxuriant  as  that  of  a  virgin  forest. 
On  all  sides  uprise  walls  of  perpendicular  rocks,  and  on 
their  crests,  several  hundred  yards  above  your  head,  are 
feudal  fortresses,  among  others  the  Castle  of  Miranda, 
*  more  giddy,  more  fantastic  than  any  which  Gustave 
Doré's  fancy  ever  dreamed. 

After  four  hours  of  walking,  the  defile  opens  out  and 
you  find  yourself  without  transition  in  a  broad  valley, 
sparkling  with  light. 

Rieti,  the  only  city  in  this  plain  of  several  leagues,  ap- 
pears far  away  at  the  other  extremity,  commanded  by 


THE  LAST  YEAR 


309 


kills  of  a  thoroughly  tropical  aspect,  behind  which  rise 
the  mighty  Apennines,  almost  always  covered  with  snow. 

The  highway  goes  directly  toward  this  town,  passing 
between  tiny  lakes  ;  here  and  there  roads  lead  off  to  little 
villages  which  you  see,  on  the  hillside,  between  the  cul- 
tivated fields  and  the  edge  of  the  forests  ;  there  are  Stron- 
cone,  Greccio,  Cantalice,  Poggio-Buscone,  and  ten  other 
small  towns,  which  have  given  more  saints  to  the  Church 
than  a  whole  province  of  France. 

Between  the  inhabitants  of  the  district  and  their 
neighbors  of  Umbria,  properly  so  called,  the  difference 
is  extreme.  They  are  all  of  the  striking  type  of  the 
Sabine  peasants,  and  they  remain  to  this  day  entire 
strangers  to  new  customs.  One  is  born  a  Capuchin 
there  as  elsewhere  one  is  born  a  soldier,  and  the  traveller 
needs  to  have  his  wits  about  him  not  to  address  every 
man  he  meets  as  Beverend  Father. 

Francis  had  often  gone  over  this  district  in  every  direc- 
tion. Like  its  neighbor,  the  hilly  March  of  Ancona,  it 
was  peculiarly  prepared  to  receive  the  new  gospel.  In 
these  hermitages,  with  their  almost  impossible  simplicity, 
perched  near  the  villages  on  every  side,  without  the  least 
care  for  material  comfort,  but  always  where  there  is  the 
widest  possible  view,  was  perpetuated  a  race  of  Brothers 
Minor,  impassioned,  proud,  stubborn,  almost  wild,  who 
did  not  wholly  understand  their  master,  who  did  not 
catch  his  exquisite  simplicity,  his  impossibility  of  bating, 
his  dreams  of  social  and  political  renovation,  his  poetry 
and  delicacy,  but  who  did  understand  the  lover  of  nature 
and  of  poverty.1    They  did  more  than  understand  him  ; 

1  The  following  is  the  list  of  monasteries  which,  according  to  Rodolfo 
di  Tossignano,  accepted  the  ideas  of  Angelo  Clareno  before  the  end  of 
the  thirteenth  century  :  Fermo,  Spoleto,  Camerino,  Ascoli,  Rieti,  Fo- 
ligno,  Nursia.  Aquila,  Amelia  :  Rwtoriarum  seraphim  rdigionis.  lïbritres, 
Venice,  1586.  1  vol. ,  f°,  155a. 


310 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


they  lived  Lis  life,  and  from  that  Christmas  festival  ob- 
served in  the  woods  of  Greccio  down  to  to-day  they  have 
remained  the  simple  and  popular  representatives  of  the 
Strict  Observance.  From  them  comes  to  us  the  Legend 
of  the  Three  Companions,  the  most  life-like  and  true  of 
all  the  portraits  of  the  Poverello,  and  it  was  there,  in  a 
cell  three  paces  long,  that  Giovanni  di  Parma  had  his 
apocalyptic  visions. 

The  news  of  Francis's  arrival  quickly  spread,  and  long 
before  he  reached  Bieti  the  population  had  come  out  to 
meet  him. 

To  avoid  this  noisy  welcome  he  craved  the  hospital- 
ity of  the  priest  of  St.  Fabian.  This  little  church,  now 
known  under  the  name  of  Our  Lady  of  the  Forest,  is 
somewhat  aside  from  the  road  upon  a  grassy  mound 
about  a  league  from  the  city.  He  was  heartily  wel- 
comed, and  desiring  to  remain  there  for  a  little,  prelates 
and  devotees  began  to  flock  thither  in  the  next  few  days. 

It  was  the  time  of  the  early  grapes.  It  is  easy  to 
imagine  the  disquietude  of  the  priest  on  perceiving  the 
ravages  made  by  these  visitors  among  his  vines,  his  best 
source  of  revenue,  but  he  probably  exaggerated  the  dam- 
age. Francis  one  day  heard  him  giving  vent  to  his  bad 
humor.  "  Father,"  he  said,  "  it  is  useless  for  you  to  dis- 
turb yourself  for  what  you  cannot  hinder  ;  but,  tell  me, 
how  much  wine  do  you  get  on  an  average  ?  " 

"  Fourteen  measures,"  replied  the  priest. 

"  Yery  well,  if  you  have  less  than  twenty,  I  undertake 
to  make  up  the  difference." 

This  promise  reassured  the  worthy  man,  and  when  at 
the  vintage  he  received  twenty  measures,  he  had  no  hesi- 
tation in  believing  in  a  miracle.1 

Upon  Ugolini's  entreaties  Francis  had  accepted  the 

1  Spec,  129b;  Fior.,  19.  In  some  of  the  stories  of  this  period  the 
evidence  is  clear  how  certain  facts  have  been,  little  by  little,  transformed 


THE  LAST  YEAR 


311 


hospitality  of  the  bishop's  palace  in  Eieti.  Thomas  of 
Celano  enlarges  with  delight  upon  the  marks  of  devotion 
lavished  on  Francis  by  this  prince  of  the  Church.  Un- 
happily all  this  is  written  in  that  pompous  and  confused 
style  of  which  diplomats  and  ecclesiastics  appear  to  have 
by  nature  the  secret. 

Francis  entered  into  the  condition  of  a  relic  in  his  life- 
time. The  mania  for  amulets  displayed  itself  around  him 
in  all  its  excesses.  People  quarrelled  not  only  over  his 
clothing,  but  even  over  his  hair  and  the  parings  of  his 
nails.1 

Did  these  merely  exterior  demonstrations  disgust  him  ? 
Did  he  sometimes  think  of  the  contrast  between  these 
honors  offered  to  his  body,  which  he  picturesquely  called 
Brother  Ass,  and  the  subversion  of  his  ideal  ?  We  can- 
not tell.  If  he  had  feelings  of  this  kind  those  who  sur- 
rounded him  were  not  the  men  to  understand  them,  and 
it  would  be  idle  to  expect  any  expression  of  them  from 
his  pen. 

Soon  after  he  had  a  relapse,  and  asked  to  be  removed 
to  Monte-Colombo,2  a  hermitage  an  hour  distant  from  the 
city,  hidden  amidst  trees  and  scattered  rocks.  He  had 
already  retired  thither  several  times,  notably  when  he 
was  preparing  the  Rule  of  1223. 

The  doctors,  having  exhausted  the  therapeutic  arsenal 
of  the  time,  decided  to  resort  to  cauterization  ;  it  was  de- 
cided to  draw  a  rod  of  white-hot  iron  across  his  forehead. 

When  the  poor  patient  saw  them  bringing  in  the  bra- 
zier and  the  instruments  he  had  a  moment  of  terror  ;  but 

into  miracles.  Compare,  for  example.,  the  miracle  of  St.  Urbano  in  Bon., 
68,  and  1  Cel.,  61.    See  also  2  Cel.,  2,  10  ;  Bon.,  158  and  159. 

1  1  Cel.,  87;  2  Cel.,  2,  11  ;  Conform.,  148a,  2  ;  Bon.,  99.  Upon  this 
visit  see  2  Cel.,  2,  10;  Bon.,  158  and  159  ;  2  Cel.,  2,  11  ;  2  Cel.,  3,  36. 

2  The  present  Italian  name  of  the  monastery  which  has  also  been 
called  Monte-Rainerio  and  Fonte-Palmribo. 


312 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


immediately  making  the  sign  of  the  cross  over  the  glow- 
ing iron,  "  Brother  fire,"  he  said,  "  you  are  beautiful 
above  all  creatures  ;  be  favorable  to  me  in  this  hour  ;  you 
know  how  much  I  have  always  loved  you  ;  be  then  cour- 
teous to-day." 

Afterward,  when  his  companions,  who  had  not  had  the 
courage  to  remain,  came  back  he  said  to  them,  smiling, 
"  Oh,  cowardly  folk,  why  did  you  go  away  ?  I  felt  no  pain. 
Brother  doctor,  if  it  is  necessary  you  may  do  it  again." 

This  experiment  was  no  more  successful  than  the  other 
remedies.  In  vain  they  quickened  the  wound  on  the 
forehead,  by  applying  plasters,  salves,  and  even  by  mak- 
ing incisions  in  it  ;  the  only  result  was  to  increase  the 
pains  of  the  sufferer.1 

One  day,  at  Bieti,  whither  he  had  again  been  carried, 
he  thought  that  a  little  music  would  relieve  his  pain. 
Calling  a  friar  who  had  formerly  been  clever  at  playing 
the  guitar,  he  begged  him  to  borrow  one  ;  but  the  friar 
was  afraid  of  the  scandal  which  this  might  cause,  and 
Francis  gave  it  up. 

God  took  pity  upon  him  ;  the  following  night  he  sent 
an  invisible  angel  to  give  him  such  a  concert  as  is  never 
heard  on  earth.2  Francis,  hearing  it,  lost  all  bodily  feel- 
ing, say  the  Fioretti,  and  at  one  moment  the  melody  was 
so  sweet  and  penetrating  that  if  the  angel  had  given  one 
more  stroke  of  the  bow,  the  sick  man's  soul  would  have 
left  his  body.3 

I*  seems  that  there  was  some  amelioration  of  his  state 
when  the  doctors  left  him  ;  we  find  him  during  the 

1  1  Cel.,  101;  2  Cel.,  3,  102;  Bon.,  67;  Spec,  134a. 

2  2  Cel.,  3,  66  ;  Bon.,  69. 

3  Fior.  ii.  consid.  Cf.  Roger  Bacon,  Opns  tertium  (ap.  Mon.  Germ, 
hist.,  Script,  t.  28,  p.  577).  B.  Francisais  jussit  fratri  cythariste  nt 
didchis  personaret,  quatenus  mens  excitaretur  ad  harmonias  cœlestes 
quas  pluries  andivit.  Mira  enim  musicm  super  omnes  scientias  et  spec- 
tanda  poiestas. 


THE  LAST  YEAR 


313 


months  of  this  winter,  1225-1226,  in  the  most  remote 
hermitages  of  the  district,  for  as  soon  as  he  had  a  little 
strength  he  was  determined  to  begin  preaching  again. 

He  went  to  Poggio-Bnscone1  for  the  Christmas  festi- 
val. People  flocked  thither  in  crowds  from  all  the  coun- 
try round  to  see  and  hear  him.  "  You  come  here,"  he  said, 
"  expecting  to  find  a  great  saint  ;  what  will  you  think 
when  I  tell  you  that  I  ate  meat  all  through  Advent  ?" 2 
At  St.  Eleutheria,3  at  a  time  of  extreme  cold  which  tried 
him  much,  he  had  sewn  some  pieces  of  stuff  into  his  own 
tunic  and  that  of  his  companion,  so  as  to  make  their  gar- 
ments a  little  warmer.  One  day  his  companion  came 
home  with  a  fox-skin,  with  which  in  his  turn  he  proposed 
to  line  his  masters  tunic.  Francis  rejoiced  much  over  it, 
but  would  permit  this  excess  of  consideration  for  his  body 
only  on  condition  that  the  piece  of  fur  should  be  placed 
on  the  outside  over  his  chest. 

All  these  incidents,  almost  insignificant  at  a  first  view, 
show  how  he  detested  hypocrisy  even  in  the  smallest 
things. 

We  will  not  follow  him  to  his  dear  Greccio,1  nor  even 
to  the  hermitage  of  St.  Urbano,  perched  on  one  of  the 
highest  peaks  of  the  Sabine.5    The  accounts  which  we 

1  Village  three  hours'  walk  northward  from  Rieti.  Francis's  cell  still 
remains  on  the  mountain,  three-quarters  of  an  hour  from  the  place. 

2  2  Cel.,  3,  71  ;  cf.  Spec.,  43a. 

3  Chapel  still  standing,  a  few  minutes'  walk  from  Rieti.  2  Cel.,  3.  70  ; 
Spec.,  15a,  43a. 

4  2  Cel.,  2,  14  ;  Bon.,  167  ;  2  Cel.,  3,  10  ;  Bon.,  58  ;  Spec.,  122b. 

5  Wadding,  ami.  1213,  n.  14,  rightly  places  St.  Urbano  in  the  county 
of  Narni.  LErerno  di  S.  Urbano  is  about  half  an  hour  from  the  village 
of  the  same  name,  on  Mount  San  Pancrazio  (1026  m.),  three  leagues  south 
of  Xarni.  The  panorama  is  one  of  the  finest  in  Central  Italy.  The  Bol- 
landists  allowed  themselves  to  be  led  into  error  by  an  interested  asser- 
tion when  they  placed  San  Urbano  near  to  Jesi  (pp.  623f  and  624a).  1 
Cel.,  61;  Bon.,  68.  (Vide  Bull  Cum  aliqua  of  May  15,  1218,  where 
mention  is  made  of  San  Urbano.) 


314 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


have  of  the  brief  visits  he  made  there  at  this  time  tell 
us  nothing  new  of  his  character  or  of  the  history  of  his 
life.  They  simply  show  that  the  imaginations  of  those 
who  surrounded  him  were  extraordinarily  overheated  ; 
the  least  incidents  immediately  took  on  a  miraculous 
coloring.1 

The  documents  do  not  say  how  it  came  about  that  he 
decided  to  go  to  Sienna.  It  appears  that  there  was  in 
that  city  a  physician  of  great  fame  as  an  oculist.  The 
treatment  he  prescribed  was  no  more  successful  than 
that  of  the  others  ;  but  with  the  return  of  spring  Francis 
made  a  new  effort  to  return  to  active  life.  We  find  him 
describing  the  ideal  Franciscan  monastery,2  and  another 
day  explaining  a  passage  in  the  Bible  to  a  Dominican. 

Did  the  latter,  a  doctor  in  theology,  desire  to  bring  the 
rival  Order  into  ridicule  by  showing  its  founder  incapable 
of  explaining  a  somewhat  difficult  verse?  It  appears 
extremely  likely.  "My  good  father,"  he  said,  "how  do 
you  understand  this  saying  of  the  prophet  Ezekiel,  '  If 
thou  dost  not  warn  the  wicked  of  his  wickedness,  I  will 
require  his  soul  of  thee  ?  '  I  am  acquainted  with  many 
men  whom  I  know  to  be  in  a  state  of  mortal  sin,  and  yet 
I  am  not  always  reproaching  them  for  their  vices.  Am 
I,  then,  responsible  for  their  souls  ?  " 

At  first  Francis  excused  himself,  alleging  his  ignorance, 
but  urged  by  his  interlocutor  he  said  at  last  :  "  Yes,  the 
true  servant  unceasingly  rebukes  the  wicked,  but  he  does 
it  most  of  all  by  his  conduct,  by  the  truth  which  shines 
forth  in  his  words,  by  the  light  of  his  example,  by  all 
the  radiance  of  his  life." 3 

He  soon  suffered  so  grave  a  relapse  that  the  Brothers 

1  As  much  may  be  said  of  the  apparition  of  the  three  virgins  between 
Campilia  and  San  Quirico.    2  Cel.,  3,  37  ;  Bon.,  93. 

2  Spec,  12b;  Conform.,  169a,  1. 

3  2  Cel.,  3,  46  ;  Bon.,  153;  Spec.,  31b;  Ezek.,  xxxiii.,  9. 


THE  LAST  YEAE 


315 


thought  his  last  hour  had  corne.  They  were  especially 
affrighted  by  the  hemorrhages,  which  reduced  him  to  a 
state  of  extreme  prostration.  Brother  Elias  hastened  to 
him.  At  his  arrival  the  invalid  felt  in  himself  such  an 
improvement  that  they  could  acquiesce  in  his  desire  to 
be  taken  back  to  Umbria.  Toward  the  middle  of  April 
they  set  out,  going  in  the  direction  of  Cortona.  It  is  the 
easiest  route,  and  the  delightful  hermitage  of  that  city 
was  one  of  the  best  ordered  to  permit  of  his  taking 
some  repose.  He  doubtless  remained  there  a  very  short 
time  :  he  was  in  haste  to  see  once  more  the  skies  of  his 
native  country,  Portiuncula,  St.  Damian,  the  Carceri,  all 
those  paths  and  hamlets  which  one  sees  from  the  terraces 
of  Assisi  and  which  recalled  to  him  so  many  sweet  mem- 
ories. 

Instead  of  going  by  the  nearest  road,  they  made  a  long 
circuit  by  Gubbio  and  Nocera,  to  avoid  Perugia,  fearing 
some  attempt  of  the  inhabitants  to  get  possession  of  the 
Saint.  Such  a  relic  as  the  body  of  Francis  lacked  little  of 
the  value  of  the  sacred  nail  or  the  sacred  lance.1  Battles 
were  fought  for  less  than  that. 

They  made  a  short  halt  near  Nocera,  at  the  hermitage 
of  Bagnara,  on  the  slopes  of  Monte-Pennino.2  His  com- 
panions were  again  very  much  disturbed.  The  swelling 
which  had  shown  itself  in  the  lower  limbs  was  rapidly 
gaining  the  upper  part  of  the  body.  The  Assisans  learned 
this,  and  wishing  to  be  prepared  for  whatever  might 
happen  sent  their  men-at-arms  to  protect  the  Saint  and 
hasten  his  return. 

Bringing  Francis  back  with  them  they  stopped  for  food 

1  Two  years  after,  the  King  of  France  and  all  his  court  kissed  and  re- 
vered the  pillow  which  Francis  had  used  during  his  illness.  1  Cel., 
120. 

-  Bagnara  is  near  the  sources  of  the  Topino,  about  an  hour  east  of 
Nocera.    These  two  localities  were  then  dependents  of  Assisi. 


316 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


at  the  hamlet  of  Balciano,1  but  in  vain  they  begged  the 
inhabitants  to  sell  them  provisions.  As  the  escort  were 
confiding  their  discomfiture  to  the  friars,  Francis,  who 
knew  these  good  peasants,  said  :  "If  you  had  asked  for 
food  without  offering  to  pay,  you  would  have  found  all 
you  wanted." 

He  was  right,  for,  following  his  advice,  they  received 
for  nothing  all  that  they  desired.2 

The  arrival  of  the  party  at  Assisi  was  hailed  with 
frantic  joy.  This  time  Francis's  fellow-citizans  were 
sure  that  the  Saint  was  not  going  to  die  somewhere 
else.3 

Customs  in  this  matter  have  changed  too  much  for  us 
to  be  able  thoroughly  to  comprehend  the  good  fortune  of 
possessing  the  body  of  a  saint.  If  you  are  ever  so  un- 
lucky as  to  mention  St.  Andrew  before  an  inhabitant  of 
Amalfi,  you  will  immediately  find  him  beginning  to  shout 
"Evviva  San  Andrea  !  Evviva  San  Andrea  !  "  Then  with 
extraordinary  volubility  he  will  relate  to  you  the  legend 
of  the  Grande  Protettore,  his  miracles  past  and  present, 
those  which  he  might  have  done  if  he  had  chosen,  but 
which  he  refrained  from  doing  out  of  charity  because  St. 
Januarius  of  Naples  could  not  do  as  much.  He  gesticu- 
lates, throws  himself  about,  hustles  you,  more  enthusi- 
astic over  his  relic  and  more  exasperated  by  your  cold- 
ness than  a  soldier  of  the  Old  Guard  before  an  enemy  of 
the  Emperor. 

In  the  thirteenth  century  all  Europe  was  like  that. 

We  shall  find  here  several  incidents  which  we  may  be 
tempted  to  consider  shocking  or  even  ignoble,  if  we  do 

1  And  not  Sartiano.  Balciano  still  exists,  about  half  way  between  No- 
cera  and  Assisi. 

2  2  Cel.,  3,  23  ;  Bon.,  98  ;  Sped.,  17b  ;  Conform,.,  239a,  2f. 

3  2  Cel.,  3,  33;  1  Cel.,  105,  is  still  more  explicit  :  "The  multitude 
hoped  that  he  would  die  very  soon,  and  that  was  the  subject  of  their 
joy." 


THE  LAST  YEAR 


317 


not  make  an  effort  to  put  them  all  into  their  proper  sur- 
roundings. 

Francis  was  installed  in  the  bishop's  palace  ;  he  would 
have  preferred  to  be  at  Portiuncula,  but  the  Brothers 
were  obliged  to  obey  the  injunctions  of  the  populace,  and 
to  make  assurance  doubly  sure,  guards  were  placed  at  all 
the  approaches  of  the  palace. 

The  abode  of  the  Saint  in  this  place  was  much  longer 
than  had  been  anticipated.  It  perhaps  lasted  several 
months  (  July  to  September  |.  This  dying  man  did  not 
consent  to  die.  He  rebelled  against  death  ;  in  this 
centre  of  the  work  his  anxieties  for  the  future  of  the 
Order,  which  a  little  while  before  had  been  in  the  back- 
ground, now  returned,  more  agonizing  and  terrible  than 
ever. 

"We  must  begin  again,  ";  he  thought,  "create  a  new 
family  who  will  not  forget  humility,  who  will  go  and 
serve  lepers  and,  as  in  the  old  times,  put  themselves  al- 
ways, not  merely  in  words,  but  in  reality,  below  all  men."  1 

To  feel  that  implacable  work  of  destruction  going  on 
against  which  the  most  submissive  cannot  keep  from 
protesting  :  "  My  God,  my  God,  why  ?  why  hast  thou  ( 
forsaken  me  ?  ":  To  be  obliged  to  look  on  at  the  still 
more  dreaded  decomposition  of  his  Order  ;  he,  the  lark, 
to  be  spied  upon  by  soldiers  watching  for  his  corpse — 
there  was  quite  enough  here  to  make  him  mortally  sad. 

During  these  last  weeks  all  his  sighs  were  noted.  The 
disappearance  of  the  greater  part  of  the  legend  of  the 
Three  Companions  certainly  deprives  us  of  some  touch- 
ing stories,  but  most  of  the  incidents  have  been  preserved 
for  us,  notwithstanding,  in  documents  from  a  second  hand. 

Four  Brothers  had  been  especially  charged  to  lavish 
care  upon  him  :  Leo,  Angelo,  Bufino,  and  Masseo.  We 
already  know  them  ;  they  are  of  those  intimate  friends 
1  1  Cel..  103  and  104. 


318 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FKANCIS 


of  the  first  days,  who  had  heard  in  the  Franciscan  gospel 
a  call  to  love  and  liberty.  And  they  too  began  to  com- 
plain of  everything.1 

One  day  one  of  them  said  to  the  sick  man  :  "  Father, 
you  are  going  away  to  leave  us  here  ;  point  out  to  us, 
then,  if  you  know  him,  the  one  to  whom  we  might  in  all 
security  confide  the  burden  of  the  generalship." 

Alas,  Francis  did  not  know  the  ideal  Brother,  capable 
of  assuming  such  a  duty  ;  but  he  took  advantage  of  the 
question  to  sketch  the  portrait  of  the  perfect  minister- 
general.' 

We  have  two  impressions  of  this  portrait,  the  one 
which  has  been  retouched  by  Celano,  and  the  original 
proof,  much  shorter  and  more  vague,  but  showing  us 
Francis  desiring  that  his  successor  shall  have  but  a  sin- 
gle weapon,  an  unalterable  love. 

It  was  probably  this  question  which  suggested  to  him 
the  thought  of  leaving  for  his  successors,  the  generals  of 
the  Order,  a  letter  which  they  should  pass  on  from  one 
to  another,  and  where  they  should  find,  not  directions  for 
particular  cases,  but  the  very  inspiration  of  their  activ- 
ity.3 

To  the  Reverend  Father  in  Christ,  N  .  .  .,  Minister-General  of 
the  entire  Order  of  the  Brothers  Minor.  May  God  bless  thee  and  keep 
thee  in  his  holy  love. 

Patience  in  all  things  and  everywhere,  this,  my  Brother,  is  what  I 
specially  recommend.  Even  if  they  oppose  thee,  if  they  strike  thee, 
thou  shouldst  be  grateful  to  them  and  desire  that  it  should  be  thus  and 
not  otherwise. 

In  this  will  be  manifest  thy  love  for  God  and  for  me,  his  servant  and 
thine  ;  that  there  shall  not  be  a  single  friar  in  the  world  who,  having 
sinned  as  much  as  one  can  sin,  and  coming  before  thee,  shall  go  away 


1  1  Cel.,  102;  Spec.,  83b. 

-  2  Cel.,  3,  116  ;  Spec,  67a  ;  Conform.,  143b,  1,  and  225b,  2  ;  2  Cel., 
3,  117  ;  Spec,  130a. 
3  For  the  text  vide  Conform.,  136b,  2  ;  138b,  2  ;  142  b,  1. 


THE  LAST  YEAR 


319 


without  having  received  thy  pardon.  And  if  lie  does  not  ask  it,  do 
tliou  ask  it  for  him,  whether  he  wills  or  not. 

And  if  he  should  return  again  a  thousand  times  before  thee,  love 
him  more  than  myself,  in  order  to  lead  him  to  well-doing.  Have  pity 
always  on  these  Brothers. 

These  words  show  plainly  enough  how  in  former  days 
Francis  had  directed  the  Order  ;  in  his  dream  the  min- 
isters-general were  to  stand  in  a  relation  of  pure  affec- 
tion, of  tender  devotion  to  Avar  d  those  under  them  ;  but 
was  this  possible  for  one  at  the  head  of  a  family  whose 
branches  extended  over  the  entire  world  ?  It  would  be 
hazardous  to  say,  for  among  his  successors  have  not  been 
wanting  distinguished  minds  and  noble  hearts  ;  but  save 
for  Giovanni  di  Parma  and  two  or  three  others,  this  ideal 
is  in  sharp  contrast  with  the  reality.  St.  Bonaventura 
himself  will  drag  his  master  and  friend,  this  very  Gio- 
vanni of  Parma,  before  an  ecclesiastical  tribunal,  will 
cause  him  to  be  condemned  to  perpetual  imprisonment, 
and  it  will  need  the  intervention  of  a  cardinal  out- 
side of  the  Order  to  secure  the  commutation  of  this  sen- 
tence.1 

The  agonies  of  grief  endured  by  the  dying  Francis 
over  the  decadence  of  the  Order  would  have  been  less 
poignant  if  they  had  not  been  mingled  with  self-re- 
proaches for  his  own  cowardice.  ^Vhy  had  he  deserted 
his  post,  given  up  the  direction  of  his  family,  if  not  from 
idleness  and  selfishness?  And  now  it  was  too  late  to 
take  back  this  step  ;  and  in  hours  of  frightful  anguish  he 
arsked  himself  if  God  would  not  hold  him  responsible  for 
this  subversion  of  his  ideal. 

"Ah,  if  I  could  go  once  again  to  the  chapter-general," 
he  would  sigh,  "I  would  show  them  what  my  will  is." 

Shattered  as  he  was  by  fever,  he  would  suddenly 
rise  up  in  his  bed,  crying  with  a  despairing  intensity  : 
1  Tribul.,  Archiv.,  ii.,  pp.  285  ff. 


320 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


"  Where  are  they  who  have  ravished  my  brethren  from 
me  ?    Where  are  they  who  have  stolen  away  my  family  ?  " 

Alas,  the  real  criminals  were  nearer  to  him  than  he 
thought.  The  provincial  ministers,  of  whom  he  ap- 
pears to  have  been  thinking  when  he  thus  spoke,  were 
only  instruments  in  the  hands  of  the  clever  Brother 
Elias  ;  and  he  —  what  else  was  he  doing  but  putting 
his  intelligence  and  address  at  Cardinal  Ugolini's  ser- 
vice ? 

Far  from  finding  any  consolation  in  those  around  him, 
Francis  was  constantly  tortured  by  the  confidences  of 
his  companions,  who,  impelled  by  mistaken  zeal,  ag- 
gravated his  pain  instead  of  calming  it.1 

"  Forgive  me,  Father,"  said  one  of  them  to  him  one  day,  "  but  many 
people  have  already  thought  what  I  am  going  to  say  to  you.  You  know 
how,  in  the  early  days,  by  G-od's  grace  the  Order  walked  in  the  path  of 
perfection  ;  for  all  that  concerns  poverty  and  love,  as  well  as  for  all 
the  rest,  the  Brothers  were  but  one  heart  and  one  soul.  But  for  some 
time  past  all  that  is  entirely  changed  :  it  is  true  that  people  often 
excuse  the  Brothers  by  saying  that  the  Order  has  grown  too  large  to 
keep  up  the  old  observances  ;  they  even  go  so  far  as  to  claim  that 
infidelities  to  the  Rule,  such  as  the  building  of  great  monasteries,  are 
a  means  of  edification  of  the  people,  and  so  the  primitive  simplicity 
and  poverty  are  held  for  nothing.  Evidently  all  these  abuses  are  dis- 
pleasing to  you  ;  but  then,  people  ask,  why  do  you  tolerate  them?  " 

"God  forgive  you.  brother,"  replied  Francis.  "Why  do  you  lay  at 
my  door  things  with  which  I  have  nothing  to  do  ?  So  long  as  I  had 
the  direction  of  the  Order,  and  the  Brothers  persevered  in  their  voca- 
tion I  was  able,  in  spite  of  weakness,  to  do  what  was  needful.  But 
when  I  saw  that,  without  caring  for  my  example  or  my  teaching,  they 
walked  in  the  way  you  have  described,  I  confided  them  to  the  Lord 
and  to  the  ministers.  It  is  true  that  when  I  relinquished  the  direction, 
alleging  my  incapacity  as  the  motive,  if  they  had  walked  in  the  way 
of  my  wishes  I  should  not  have  desired  that  before  my  death  they 
should  have  had  any  other  minister  than  myself  ;  though  ill,  though 
bedridden,  even,  I  should  have  found  strength  to  perform  the  duties  of 


1  2  Cel.,  3,  118. 


THE  LAST  YEAR 


321 


my  charge.  But  this  charge  is  wholly  spiritual  ;  I  will  not  become  an 
executioner  to  strike  and  punish  as  political  governors  must."  1 

Francis's  complaints  became  so  sharp  and  bitter  that, 
to  avoid  scandal,  the  greatest  prudence  was  exercised 
with  regard  to  those  who  were  permitted  to  see  him.2 

Disorder  was  everywhere,  and  every  day  brought  its 
contingent  of  subjects  for  sorrow.  The  confusion  of 
ideas  as  to  the  practice  of  the  Bule  was  extreme  ;  occult 
influences,  which  had  been  working  for  several  years, 
had  succeeded  in  veiling  the  Franciscan  ideal,  not  only 
from  distant  Brothers,  or  those  who  had  newly  joined 
the  Order,  but  even  from  those  who  had  lived  under 
the  influence  of  the  founder.3 

Under  circumstances  such  as  these,  Francis  dictated 
the  letter  to  all  the  members  of  the  Order,  which,  as 
he  thought  would  be  read  at  the  opening  of  chapters 
and  perpetuate  his  spiritual  presence  in  them.4 

In  this  letter  he  is  perfectly  true  to  himself  ;  as  in  the 

1  These  words  are  borrowed  from  a  long  fragment  cited  by  Ubertini 
di  Casali,  as  coming  from  Brother  Leo  :  Arbor  vit.  crue,  lib.  v.,  cap.  3. 
It  is  surely  a  bit  of  the  Legend  of  the  Three  Companions  ;  it  may  be 
found  textually  in  the  Tribulations,  Laur. ,  f°  16b,  with  a  few  more 
sentences  at  the  end.  Cf.  Conform.,  136a,  2  ;  143a,  2  ;  Spec,  8b  ;  26b  ; 
50a;  130b  ;  2  Cel.,  3,  118. 

2  Tribul.,  Laur.,  lib. 

3  See,  for  example,  Brother  Richers  question  as  to  the  books  :  Uber- 
tini. Loc.  cit.  Cf.  Archiv.,  iii.,  pp.  75  and  177;  Spec.,  8a;  Conform., 
71b,  2.  See  also:  Ubertini,  Archie.,  iii. ,  pp.  75  and  177;  Tiibul., 
13a  ;  Spec,  9a  ;  Conform.,  170a,  1.  It  is  curious  to  compare  the  account 
as  it  found  in  the  documents  with  the  version  of  it  given  in  2  Cel. ,  3,  8. 

4  Assisi  MS.,  338,  f°  28a-31a,  with  the  rubric  :  Be  lict  ra  et  ammoni- 
tione  beatissimi patrie  nostri  Francisez  quam  misit  fratribus  ad  capitulum 
quando  erat  infirmus.  This  letter  was  wrongly  divided  into  three  by 
Rodolfo  di  Tossignano  (f°  237),  who  was  followed  by  Wadding  (Epis- 
tolae  x.,  xi.,  xii.).  The  text  is  found  without  this  senseless  division  in 
the  manuscript  cited  and  in  Firmamentum,  f 0  21  ;  Spec. ,  Morin,  iii. , 
217a;  Ubertini,  Arbor  vit.  crue,  v.,  7. 

21 


*  322 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


past,  lie  desires  to  influence  the  Brothers,  not  by  re- 
proaches but  by  fixing  their  eyes  on  the  perfect  holiness. 

To  all  the  revered  and  well-beloved  Brothers  Minor,  to  Brother 
A  .  .  .,  1  minister-general,  its  Lord  and  to  the  ministers-general  who 
shall  be  after  him,  and  to  all  the  ministers,  custodians,  and  priests  of 
this  fraternity,  humble  in  Christ,  and  to  all  the  simple  and  obedient 
Brothers,  the  oldest  and  the  most  recent,  Brother  Francis,  a  mean  and 
perishing  man,  your  little  servant,  gives  greeting  ! 

Hear,  my  Lords,  you  who  are  my  sons  and  my  brothers,  give  ear  to 
my  words.  Open  your  hearts  and  obey  the  voice  of  the  Son  of  God. 
Keep  his  commandments  with  all  your  hearts,  and  perfectly  observe 
his  counsels.  Praise  him,  for  he  is  good,  and  glorify  him  by  your 
works. 

God  has  sent  you  through  all  the  world,  that  by  your  words  and 
example  you  may  bear  witness  of  him,  and  that  you  may  teach  all  men 
that  he  alone  is  all  powerful.  Persevere  in  discipline  and  obedience, 
and  with  an  honest  and  firm  will  keep  that  which  you  have  promised. 

After  this  opening  Francis  immediately  passes  to  the 
essential  matter  of  the  letter,  that  of  the  love  and  respect 
due  to  the  Sacrament  of  the  altar  ;  faith  in  this  mys- 
tery of  love  appeared  to  him  indeed  as  the  salvation  of 
the  Order. 

Was  he  wrong  ?  How  can  a  man  who  truly  believes 
in  the  real  presence  of  the  God-Man  between  the  fingers 
of  him  who  lifts  up  the  host,  not  consecrate  his  life  to 
this  God  and  to  holiness?  One  has  some  difficulty  in 
imagining. 

It  is  true  that  legions  of  devotees  profess  the  most  ab- 
solute faith  in  this  dogma,  and  we  do  not  see  that  they 
are  less  bad  ;  but  faith  with  them  belongs  in  the  intel- 

1  This  initial  (given  only  by  the  Assisi  MS.)  has  not  failed  to  ex- 
cite surprise.  It  appears  that  there  ought  to  have  been  simply  an 
N  .  .  .  This  letter  then  would  have  been  replaced  by  the  copyist, 
who  would  have  used  the  initial  of  the  minister  general  in  charge  at  the 
time  of  his  writing.  If  this  hypothesis  has  any  weight  it  will  aid  to  fix 
the  exact  date  of  the  manuscript.  (Alberto  of  Pisa  minister  from  1239- 
1240  ;  Aimon  of  Faversham,  1240-1244.) 


THE  LAST  YEAR 


323 


lectual  sphere  ;  it  is  the  abdication  of  reason,  and  in 
sacrificing  their  intelligence  to  God  they  are  most  happy 
to  offer  to  hirn  an  instrument  which  they  very  much  pre- 
fer  not  to  use. 

To  Francis  the  question  presented  itself  quite  differ- 
ently ;  the  thought  that  there  could  be  any  merit  in  be- 
lieving could  never  enter  his  mind  ;  the  fact  of  the  real 
presence  was  for  him  of  almost  concrete  evidence.  There- 
fore his  faith  in  this  mystery  was  an  energy  of  the  heart, 
that  the  life  of  God,  mysteriously  present  upon  the  altar, 
might  become  the  soul  of  all  his  actions. 

To  the  eucharistie  transubstantiation,  effected  by  the 
words  of  the  priest,  he  added  another,  that  of  his  own 
heart. 

God  offers  himself  to  us  as  to  his  children.  This  is  why  I  beg  you, 
all  of  you,  my  brothers,  kissing  your  feet,  and  with  all  the  love  of  which 
I  am  capable,  to  have  all  possible  respect  for  the  body  and  blood  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Then  addressing  himself  particularly  to  the  priests  : 

Hearken,  my  brothers,  if  the  blessed  Virgin  Mary  is  justly  honored 
for  having  carried  Jesus  in  her  womb,  if  John  the  Baptist  trembled  be- 
cause he  dared  not  touch  the  Lord's  head,  if  the  sepulchre  in  which  for 
a  little  time  he  lay  is  regarded  with  such  great  adoration,  oh,  how  holy, 
pure,  and  worthy  should  be  the  priest  who  touches  with  his  hands,  who 
receives  into  his  mouth  and  into  his  heart,  and  who  distributes  to  others 
the  living,  glorified  Jesus,  the  sight  of  whom  makes  angels  rejoice! 
Understand  your  dignity,  brother  priests,  and  be  holy,  for  he  is  holy. 
Oh  !  what  great  wretchedness  and  what  a  frightful  infirmity  to  have  him 
there  present  before  you  and  to  think  of  other  things.  Let  each  man 
be  struck  with  amazement,  let  the  whole  earth  tremble,  let  the  heavens 
thrill  with  joy  when  the'  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God,  descends 
upon  the  altar  into  the  hands  of  the  priest.  Oh,  wonderful  profundit}'  ! 
Oh,  amazing  grace  !  Oh,  triumph  of  humility  !  See,  the  Master  of  all 
things,  God,  and  the  Son  of  God,  humbles  himself  for  our  salvation, 
even  to  disguising  himself  under  the  appearance  of  a  bit  of  bread. 

Contemplate,  my  brothers,  this  humility  of  God.  and  enlarge  your 
hearts  before  him  ;  humble  yourselves  as  well,  that  you,  even  you, 


324 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


may  be  lifted  up  by  him.  Keep  nothing  for  yourselves,  that  he  may 
receive  you  without  reserve,  who  has  given  himself  to  you  without 
reserve. 

We  see  with  what  vigor  of  love  Francis's  heart  had 
laid  hold  upon  the  idea  of  the  communion. 

He  closes  with  long  counsels  to  the  Brothers,  and  after 
having  conjured  them  faithfully  to  keep  their  promises, 
all  his  mysticism  breathes  out  and  is  summed  up  in  a 
prayer  of  admirable  simplicity. 

God  Almighty,  eternal,  righteous,  and  merciful,  give  to  us  poor 
wretches  to  do  for  thy  sake  all  that  we  know  of  thy  will,  and  to  will 
always  what  pleases  thee  ;  so  that  inwardly  purified,  enlightened,  and 
kindled  by  the  fire  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  we  may  follow  in  the  footprints 
of  thy  well-beloved  Son,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

What  separates  this  prayer  from  the  effort  to  discern 
duty  made  by  choice  spirits  apart  from  all  revealed 
religion  ?  Very  little  in  truth  ;  the  words  are  different, 
the  action  is  the  same. 

But  Francis's  solicitudes  reached  far  beyond  the  limits 
of  the  Order.  His  longest  ejjistle  is  addressed  to  all 
Christians  ;  its  words  are  so  living  that  you  fancy  you 
hear  a  voice  speaking  behind  you  ;  and  this  voice,  usu- 
ally as  serene  as  that  which  from  the  mountain  in  Galilee 
proclaimed  the  law  of  the  new  times,  becomes  here  and 
there  unutterably  sweet,  like  that  which  sounded  in  the 
upper  chamber  on  the  night  of  the  first  eucharist. 

As  Jesus  forgot  the  cross  that  was  standing  in  the 
shadows,  so  Francis  forgets  his  sufferings,  and,  overcome 
with  a  divine  sadness,  thinks  of  humanity,  for  each  mem- 
ber of  which  he  would  give  his  life  ;  he  thinks  of  his 
spiritual  sons,  the  Brothers  of  Penitence,  whom  he  is 
about  to  leave  without  having  been  able  to  make  them 
feel,  as  he  would  have  had  them  feel,  the  love  for  them 
with  which  he  burns  :  "  Father,  I  have  given  them  the 


THE  LAST  YEAR 


32o 


words  which  thou  hast  given  me.  .  .  .  For  them  I 
pray  ! :' 

The  whole  Franciscan  gospel  is  in  these  words,  but  to 
understand  the  fascination  which  it  exerted  we  must 
have  gone  through  the  School  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
and  there  listened  to  the  interminable  tournaments  of 
dialectics  by  which  minds  were  dried  up  ;  we  must  have 
seen  the  Church  of  the  thirteenth  century,  honeycombed 
by  simony  and  luxury,  and  only  able,  under  the  pressure 
of  heresy  or  revolt,  to  make  a  few  futile  efforts  to  scotch 
the  evil. 

To  all  Christians,  monks,  clerics,  or  laymen,  whether  men  or  women, 
to  all  who  dwell  in  the  whole  world,  Brother  Francis,  their  most  sub- 
missive servitor,  presents  his  duty  and  wishes  the  true  peace  of  heaven, 
and  sincere  love  in  the  Lord. 

Being  the  servitor  of  all  men,  I  am  bound  to  serve  them  and  to  dis- 
pense to  them  the  wholesome  words  of  my  Master.  This  is  why.  seeing 
I  am  too  weak  and  ill  to  visit  each  one  of  you  in  particular,  I  have  re- 
solved to  send  you  my  message  by  this  letter,  and  to  offer  you  the  words 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Word  of  God,  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
which  are  spirit  and  life. 

It  would  be  puerile  to  expect  here  new  ideas  either  in 
fact  or  form.  Francis's  appeals  are  of  value  only  by  the 
spirit  which  animates  them. 

After  having  briefly  recalled  the  chief  features  of  the 
gospel,  and  urgently  recommended  the  communion, 
Francis  addresses  himself  in  particular  to  certain  cate- 
gories of  hearers,  with  special  counsels. 

Let  the  podestàs,  governors,  and  those  who  are  placed  in  authority, 
exercise  their  functions  with  mercy,  as  they  would  be  judged  with 
mercy  by  God.    .    .  . 

Monks  in  particular,  who  have  renounced  the  world,  are  bound  to  do 
more  and  better  than  simple  Christians,  to  renounce  all  that  is  not 
necessary  to  them,  and  to  have  in  hatred  the  vices  and  sins  of  the  body. 

.  They  should  love  their  enemies,  do  good  to  them  who  hate  them, 
observe  the  precepts  and  counsels  of  our  Redeemer,  renounce  them- 


326 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


selves,  and  subdue  their  bodies.  And  no  monk  is  bound  to  obedience, 
it*  in  obeying  be  would  be  obliged  to  commit  a  fault  or  a  sin.    .    .  . 

Let  us  not  be  wise  and  learned  according  to  the  flesh,  but  simple, 
humble,  and  pure.  .  .  .  We  should  never  desire  to  be  above  others, 
but  rather  to  be  below,  and  to  obey  all  men. 

He  closes  by  showing  the  foolishness  of  those  who  set 
their  hearts  on  the  possession  of  earthly  goods,  and  con- 
cludes by  the  very  realistic  picture  of  the  death  of  the 
wicked. 

His  money,  his  title,  his  learning,  all  that  he  believed  himself  to  pos- 
sess, all  are  taken  from  him  ;  his  relatives  and  his  friends  to  whom  he 
has  given  his  fortune  will  come  to  divide  it  among  themselves,  and  will 
end  by  saying  :  "Curses  on  him,  for  he  might  have  given  us  more  and 
lie  has  not  done  it  ;  he  might  have  amassed  a  larger  fortune,  and  he  has 
done  nothing  of  the  kind."  The  worms  will  eat  his  body  and  the  de- 
mons will  consume  his  soul,  and  thus  he  will  lose  both  soul  and  body. 

I,  Brother  Francis,  your  little  servitor,  I  beg  and  conjure  you  by  the 
love  that  is  in  God,  ready  to  kiss  your  feet,  to  receive  with  humility  and 
love  these  and  all  other  words  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  to  conform 
your  conduct  to  them.  And  let  those  who  devoutly  receive  them  and 
understand  them  pass  them  on  to  others.  And  if  they  thus  persevere 
unto  the  end,  may  they  be  blessed  by  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the 
Holy  Spirit.  Amen.1 

If  Francis  ever  made  a  Rule  for  the  Third  Order  it 
must  have  very  nearly  resembled  this  epistle,  and  until 
this  problematical  document  is  found,  the  letter  shows 
what  were  originally  these  associations  of  Brothers  of 
Penitence.  Everything  in  these  long  pages  looks  toward 
the  development  of  the  mystic  religious  life  in  the  heart 
of  each  Christian.  But  even  when  Francis  dictated 
them,  this  high  view  had  become  a  Utopia,  and  the  Third 
Order  was  only  one  battalion  more  in  the  armies  of  the 
papacy. 

We  see  that  the  epistles  which  we  have  just  examined 

1  This  epistle  also  was  unskilfully  divided  into  two  distinct  letters  by 
Rodolfo  di  Tossignano,  f°  174a.  who  was  followed-  by  Wadding.  See 
Assisi  MS.,  338,  23a-28a  ;  Conform.,  13?a,  1  ff. 


THE  LAST  YEAR 


^27 


proceed  definitely  from  a  single  inspiration.  "Whether 
he  is  leaving  instructions  for  his  successors,  the  minis- 
ters-general, whether  he  is  writing  to  all  the  present  and 
future  members  of  his  Order,  to  all  Christians  or  even  to 
the  clergy,1  Francis  has  only  one  aim,  to  keep  on  preach- 
ing after  his  death,  and  perhaps,  too,  by  putting  into 
writing  his  message  of  peace  and  loye,  to  provide  that  he 
shall  not  be  entirely  travestied  or  misunderstood. 

Considered  in  connection  with  those  sorrowful  hours 
which  saw  their  birth,  they  form  a  whole  whose  import 
and  meaning  become  singularly  energetic.  If  we  would 
find  the  Franciscan  spirit,  it  is  here,  in  the  Paile  of  1221, 
and  in  the  Will  that  we  must  seek  for  it. 

Neglect,  and  especially  the  storms  which  later  over- 
whelmed the  Order,  explain  the  disappearance  of  several 
other  documents  which  would  cast  a  glimmer  of  poetry 
and  joy  over  these  sad  days  ; 2  Francis  had  not  forgotten 
his  sister-friend  at  St.  Damian.  Hearing  that  she  had 
been  greatly  disquieted  by  knowing  him  to  be  so  ill,  he 
desired  to  reassure  her  :  he  still  deceived  himself  as  to 
his  condition,  and  wrote  to  her  promising  soon  to  go  to 
see  her. 

To  this  assurance  he  added  some  affectionate  counsels, 
advising  her  and  her  companions  not  to  go  to  extremes 
with  their  macerations.    To  set  her  an  example  of  cheer- 

1  The  letter  to  the  clergy  only  repeats  the  thoughts  already  expressed 
upon  the  worship  of  the  holy  sacrament.  We  remenïber  Francis  sweep- 
ing out  the  churches  and  imploring  the  priests  to  keep  them  clean  ; 
this  epistle  has  the  same  object  :  it  is  found  in  the  Assisi  MS.,  338,  f ° 
31b-32b,  with  the  rubric  :  Be  reverentia  Corporis  Domini  et  de  rnun- 
ditia  altaris  ad  omnes  derkos.  Incipit  :  Attendamus  omnes.  Explicit  : 
fecerint  exemplari.  This,  therefore,  is  the  letter  given  by  Wadding 
xiii.,  but  without  address  or  salutation. 

-  We  need  not  despair  of  finding  them.  The  archives  of  the  monas- 
teries of  Clarisses  are  usually  rudimentary  enough,  but  they  are  preserved 
with  pious  care. 


328 


LIFE  OF  ST. '-FRANCIS 


fulness  he  added  to  this  letter  a  Laude  in  the  vulgar 
tongue  which  he  had  himself  set  to  music.1 

In  that  chamber  of  the  episcopal  palace  in  which  he 
was  as  it  were  imprisoned  he  had  achieved  a  new  vic- 
tory, and  it  was  doubtless  that  which  inspired  his  joy. 
The  Bishop  of  Assisi,  the  irritable  Guido,  always  at  war 
with  somebody,  was  at  this  time  quarrelling  with  the 
podestà  of  the  city  ;  nothing  more  was  needed  to  excite 
in  the  little  town  a  profound  disquiet.  Guido  had  ex- 
communicated the  podestà,  and  the  latter  had  issued  a 
prohibition  against  selling  and  buying  or  making  any  con- 
tract with  ecclesiastics. 

The  difference  grew  more  bitter,  and  no  one  appeared 
to  dream  of  attempting  a  reconciliation.  We  can  the 
better  understand  Francis's  grief  over  all  this  by  remem- 
bering that  his  very  first  effort  had  been  to  bring  peace 
into  his  native  city,  and  that  he  considered  the  return  of 
Italy  to  union  and  concord  to  be  the  essential  aim  of  his 
apostolate. 

War  in  Assisi  would  be  the  final  dissolution  of  his 
dream  ;  the  voice  of  events  crying  brutally  to  him, 
"  Thou  hast  wasted  thy  life  !  " 

The  dregs  of  this  cup  were  spared  him,  thanks  to  an 
inspiration  in  which  breaks  forth  anew  his  natural  play 
of  imagination.  To  the  Canticle  of  the  Sun  he  added  a 
new  strophe  : 

Be  praised,  Lord,  for  those  who  forgive  for  love  of  thee, 
and  bear  trials  and  tribulations  ; 
happy  they  who  persevere  in  peace, 
by  thee,  Most  high,  shall  they  be  crowned. 

Then,  calling  a  friar,  he  charged  him  to  beg  the  gov- 
ernor to  betake  himself,  with  all  the  notables  whom  he 
could  assemble,  to  the  paved  square  before  the  bishop's 

1  Spec,  117b  ;  Conform.,  185a  1  ;  135b,  1.  Cf.  Test.  B.  Clarœ,  A.  SS., 
Aug.,  ii.,  p.  747. 


THE  LAST  YEAR 


329 


palace.  The  magistrate,  to  whom  legend  gives  the  nobler 
part  in  the  whole  affair,  at  once  yielded  to  the  saint's  re- 
quest. 

When  lie  arrived  and  the  bishop  had  come  forth  from  the  palace,  two 
friars  came  forward  and  said  :  "  Brother  Francis  has  made  to  the  praise 
of  God  a  hymn  to  which  he  prays  you  to  listen  piously,''  and  imme- 
diately they  began  to  sing  the  Hymn  of  Brother  Sun,  with  its  new 
strophe. 

The  governor  listened,  standing  in  an  attitude  of  profound  attention, 
copiously  weeping,  for  he  dearly  loved  the  blessed  Francis. 

When  the  singing  was  ended,  "  Know  in  truth,"  said  he,  "  that  I  de- 
sire to  forgive  the  lord  bishop,  that  I  wish  and  ought  to  look  upon  him 
as  my  lord,  for  if  one  had  even  assassinated  my  brother  I  should  be 
ready  to  pardon  the  murderer."  With  these  words  he  threw  himself  at 
the  bishop's  feet,  and  said  :  "I  am  ready  to  do  whatsoever  you  would, 
for  the  love  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  his  servant  Francis." 

Then  the  bishop,  taking  him  by  the  hand,  lifted  him  up  and  said, 
"  With  my  position  it  would  become  me  to  be  humble,  but  since  I  am 
naturally  too  quick  to  wrath,  thou  must  pardon  me."  1 

This  unexpected  reconciliation  was  immediately  looked 
upon  as  miraculous,  and  increased  still  more  the  reverence 
of  the  Assisans  for  their  fellow-citizen. 

The  summer  was  drawing  to  a  close.  After  a  few  days 
of  relative  improvement  Francis's  sufferings  became 
greater  than  ever  :  incapable  of  movement,  he  even 
thought  that  he  ought  to  give  up  his  ardent  desire  to  see 
St.  Damian  and  Portiuncula  once  more,  and  gave  the 
brothers  all  his  directions  about  the  latter  sanctuary  : 
"  Never  abandon  it,"  he  would  repeat  to  them,  "  for  that 
place  is  truly  sacred  :  it  is  the  house  of  God."  2 

]This  story  is  given  in  the  Spec,  128b,  as  from  eye-witnesses.  Cf. 
Conform.,  184b,  1  ;  203a,  1. 

2  1  Cel.,  106.  These  recommendations  as  to  Portiuncula  were  ampli- 
fied by  the  Zelanti,  when,  under  the  generalship  of  Crescentius  (Bull  Is 
qui  ecclesiam,  March  6,  1245),  the  Basilica  of  Assisi  was  siibstituted  for 
Santa  Maria  degli  Angeli  as  mater  el  caput  of  the  Order.  Vide  Spec, 
32b,  69b-71a  ;  Conform.,  144a,  2  ;  218a,  1  ;  3  Soc,  56  ;  2  Cel.,  1,  12  and 
13;  Bon.,  24,  25;  see  the  Appendix,  the  Study  of  the  Indulgence  of 
August  2. 


330 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


It  seemed  to  him  that  if  the  Brothers  remained  attached 
to  that  bit  of  earth,  that  chapel  ten  feet  long,  those 
thatched  huts,  they  would  there  find  the  living  reminder 
of  the  poverty  of  the  early  days,  and  could  never  wander 
far  from  it. 

One  evening  he  grew  worse  with  frightful  rapidity  ;  all 
the  following  night  he  had  hemorrhages  which  left  not 
the  slightest  hope  ;  the  Brothers  hastening  to  him,  he 
dictated  a  few  lines  in  form  of  a  Will  and  gave  them  his 
blessing  :  "  Adieu,  my  children  ;  remain  all  of  you  in  the 
fear  of  God,  abide  always  united  to  Christ  ;  great  trials 
are  in  store  for  you,  and  tribulation  draws  nigh.  Happy 
are  they  who  persevere  as  they  have  begun  ;  for  there 
will  be  scandals  and  divisions  among  you.  As  for  me, 
I  am  going  to  the  Lord  and  my  God.  Yes,  I  have  the 
assurance  that  I  am  going  to  him  whom  I  have  served."  1 

During  the  following  days,  to  the  great  surprise  of 
those  who  were  about  him,  he  again  grew  somewhat 
better  ;  no  one  could  understand  the  resistance  to  death 
offered  by  this  body  so  long  worn  out  by  suffering. 

He  himself  began  to  hope  again.  A  physician  of 
Arezzo  whom  he  knew  well,  having  come  to  visit  him, 
"  Good  friend,"  Francis  asked  him,  "  how  much  longer  do 
you  think  I  have  to  live  ?  " 

"  Father,"  replied  the  other  reassuringly,  "  this  will 
all  pass  awTay,  if  it  pleases  God." 

"  I  am  not  a  cuckoo," 2  replied  Francis  smiling,  using 
a  popular  saying,  "  to  be  afraid  of  death.  By  the  grace 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  I  am  so  intimately  united  to  God  that 
I  am  equally  content  to  live  or  to  die." 

"  In  that  case,  father,  from  the  medical  point  of  view, 

1  2  Cel.,  108.  As  will  be  seen  (below,  p.  367)  the  remainder  of  Cela- 
no's  narrative  seems  to  require  to  be  taken  witli  some  reserve.  Cf. 
Spec.,  115b  ;  Conform.,  225a,  2  ;  Bon.,  211. 

2  Non  sum  cucvlus,  in  Italian  cuculo. 


THE  LAST  YEAli 


331 


your  disease  is  incurable,  and  I  do  not  think  that  you 
can  last  longer  than  the  beginning  of  autumn." 

At  these  words  the  poor  invalid  stretched  out  his 
hands  as  if  to  call  on  God,  crying  with  an  indescribable 
expression  of  joy,  "Welcome,  Sister  Death  !  "  Then  he 
began  to  sing,  and  sent  for  Brothers  Angelo  and  Leo. 

On  their  arrival  they  were  made,  in  spite  of  their  emo- 
tion, to  sing  the  Canticle  of  the  Sun.  They  were  at  the 
last  doxology  when  Francis,  checking  them,  improvised 
the  greeting  to  death  : 

Be  praised,  Lord,  for  our  Sister  the  Death  of  the  body, 

whom  no  man  may  escape  ; 

alas  for  them  who  die  in  a  state  of  mortal  sin  ; 

happy  they  who  are  found  conformed  to  thy  most  holy  will, 

for  the  second  death  will  do  to  them  no  harm. 

From  this  day  the  palace  rang  unceasingly  with  his 
songs.  Continually,  even  through  the  night,  he  would 
sing  the  Canticle  of  the  Sun  or  some  other  of  his  favorite 
compositions.  Then,  when  wearied  out,  he  would  beg 
Angelo  and  Leo  to  go  on. 

One  day  Brother  Elias  thought  it  his  duty  to  make  a 
few  remarks  on  the  subject.  He  feared  that  the  nurses 
and  the  people  of  the  neighborhood  would  be  scandalized  ; 
ought  not  a  saint  to  be  absorbed  in  meditation  in  the  face 
of  death,  to  await  it  with  fear  and  trembling  instead  of  in- 
dulging in  a  gayety  that  might  be  misinterpreted  ?  1  Per- 
haps Bishop  Guido  was  not  entirely  a  stranger  to  these 
reproaches  ;  it  seems  not  improbable  that  to  have  his 
palace  crowded  with  Brothers  Minor  all  these  long  weeks 
had  finally  put  him  a  little  out  of  humor.  But  Francis 
would  not  yield  ;  his  union  with  God  was  too  sweet  for 
him  to  consent  not  to  sing  it. 

1  Spec,  136b  ;  Fior.  iv.  consicl.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  Guido.  instead 
of  waiting  at  Assisi  for  the  certainly  impending  death  of  Francis,  went 
away  to  Mont  Gargano,    2  Cel. ,  3,  142. 


332 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Tliey  decided  at  last  to  remove  him  to  Portiuncula. 
His  desire  was  to  be  fulfilled  ;  he  was  to  die  beside  the 
humble  cha23el  where  he  had  heard  God's  voice  conse- 
crating him  apostle. 

His  companions,  bearing  their  precious  burden,  took 
the  way  through  the  olive-yards  across  the  plain.  From 
time  to  time  the  invalid,  unable  to  distinguish  anything, 
asked  where  they  Avere.  When  they  were  half  way  there, 
at  the  hospital  of  the  Crucigeri,  where  long  ago  he  had 
tended  the  leper,  and  from  whence  there  was  a  full  view 
of  all  the  houses  of  the  city,  he  begged  them  to  set  him 
upon  the  ground  with  his  face  toward  Assisi,  and  raising 
his  hand  he  bade  adieu  to  his  native  place  and  blessed  it. 


CHAPTER  XX 


FRANCIS'S  WILL  AND  DEATH 

End  of  September -October  3,  1226 

The  last  days  of  Francis's  life  are  of  radiant  beauty. 
He  went  to  meet  death,  singing,1  says  Thomas  of  Celano, 
snmming  up  the  impression  of  those  who  saw  him  then. 

To  be  once  more  at  Portiuncula  after  so  long  a  deten- 
tion at  the  bishop's  palace  was  not  only  a  real  joy  to  his 
heart,  but  the  pure  air  of  the  forest  must  have  been  much 
to  his  physical  well-being  ;  does  not  the  Canticle  of  the 
Creatures  seem  to  have  been  made  expressly  to  be  sung 
in  the  evening  of  one  of  those  autumn  days  of  Umbria, 
so  soft  and  luminous,  when  all  nature  seems  to  retire 
into  herself  to  sing  her  own  hymn  of  love  to  Brother 
Sun  ? 

We  see  that  Francis  has  come  to  that  almost  entire 
cessation  of  pain,  that  renewing  of  life,  which  so  often 
precedes  the  approach  of  the  last  catastrophe. 

He  took  advantage  of  it  to  dictate  his  Will.2 

1  Mortem  cantando  swcepif,    2  Cel. ,  3.  139. 

2  The  text  here  taken  as  a  "basis  is  that  of  the  Assisi  MS. ,  338  (f 0  16a- 
18a).  It  is  also  to  be  found  in  Firmamerdum,  ±~  19,  col.  4  ;  Speculum, 
Morin,  tract,  iii.,  8a;  Wadding,  ami.  1226,  35;  A.  SS.,  p.  663;  Amoni, 
Legenda  Trium  Sodorum ;  Appendix,  p.  110.  Everything  in  this  doc- 
ument proclaims  its  authenticity,  but  we  are  not  reduced  to  internal 
proof.  It  is  expressly  cited  in  1  Cel.,  17  (before  1230)  ;  by  the  Three 
Companions  (1246),  3  Soc,  11  ;  26  ;  29  ;  by  2  Cel..  3,  99  (1247).  These 
proofs  would  be  more  than  sufficient,  but  there  is  another  of  even  greater 


334 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


It  is  to  these  pages  that  Ave  must  go  to  find  the  true 
note  for  a  sketch  of  the  life  of  its  author,  and  an  idea  of 
the  Order  as  it  was  in  his  dreams. 

In  this  record,  which  is  of  an  incontestable  authen- 
ticity, the  most  solemn  manifestation  of  his  thought,  the 
Poverello  reveals  himself  absolutely,  with  a  virginal  can- 
dor. 

His  humility  is  here  of  a  sincerity  which  strikes  one 
with  awe  ;  it  is  absolute,  though  no  one  could  dream  that 
it  was  exaggerated.  And  yet,  wherever  his  mission  is 
concerned,  he  speaks  with  tranquil  and  serene  assurance. 
Is  he  not  an  ambassador  of  Clod  ?  Does  he  not  hold  his 
message  from  Christ  himself  ?  The  genesis  of  his 
thought  here  shows  itself  to  be  at  once  wholly  divine 
and  entirely  personal.  The  individual  conscience  here 
proclaims  its  sovereign  authority.  "  No  one  showed  me 
what  I  ought  to  do,  but  the  Most  High  himself  revealed 
to  me  that  I  ought  to  live  conformably  to  his  holy  gos- 
pel." 

When  a  man  has  once  spoken  thus,  submission  to  the 
Church  has  been  singularly  encroached  upon.  We  may 
love  her,  hearken  to  her,  venerate  her,  but  we  feel  our- 
selves, perhaps  without  daring  to  avow  it,  superior  to 
her.  Let  a  critical  hour  come,  and  one  finds  himself 
heretic  without  knowing  it  or  wishing  it. 

"  Ah,  yes,"  cries  Angelo  Clareno,  "  St.  Francis  prom- 
ised to  obey  the  pope  and  his  successors,  but  they  can- 
not and  must  not  command  anything  contrary  to  the 
conscience  or  to  the  Kule."  1 

For  him,  as  for  all  the  spiritual  Franciscans,  when  there 

value  :  the  bull  Quo  elongati  of  September  28,  1230,  wbere  Gregory  IX. 
cites  it  textually  and  declares  that  the  friars  are  not  bound  to  observe  it. 

1  Promittet  Francisais  obedientiam  .  .  .  papce  .  .  .  et  succes- 
soribus  .  .  .  qui  non  possunt  nec  debent  eis  prcecipere  aliquid  quod 
sit  contra  animam  et  regulam.    Archiv.,  i,  p.  563. 


FRANCIS'S  WILL  AND  DEATH  33Ô 

is  conflict  between  what  the  inward  voice  of  God  ordains 
and  what  the  Church  wills,  he  has  only  to  obey  the 
former.1 

If  yon  tell  him  that  the  Church  and  the  Order  are  there 
to  define  the  true  signification  of  the  Rule,  he  appeals  to 
common  sense,  and  to  that  interior  certitude  which  is 
given  by  a  clear  view  of  truth. 

The  Rule,  as  also  the  gospel,  of  which  it  is  a  summary, 
is  above  all  ecclesiastical  power,  and  no  one  has  the  right 
to  say  the  last  word  in  their  interpretation.2 

The  Will  was  not  slow  to  gain  a  moral  authority 
superior  even  to  that  of  the  Rule.  Giovanni  of  Parma, 
to  explain  the  predilection  of  the  Joachimites  for  this 
document,  points  out  that  after  the  impression  of  the 
stigmata  the  Holy  Spirit  was  in  Francis  with  still  greater 
plenitude  than  before.3 

Did  the  innumerable  sects  which  disturbed  the  Church 
in  the  thirteenth  century  perceive  that  these  two  writ- 
ings— the  Rule  and  the  Testament — the  one  apparently 
made  to  follow  and  support  the  other,  substantially  iden- 
tical as  it  was  said,  proceeded  from  two  opposite  inspira- 
tions? Very  confusedly,  no  doubt,  but  guided  by  a  very 
sure  instinct,  they  saw  in  these  pages  the  banner  of  lib- 
erty. 

They  were  not  mistaken.  Even  to-day,  thinkers,  mor- 
alists, mystics  may  arrive  at  solutions  very  different  from 
those  of  the  Umbrian  prophet,  but  the  method  which 
they  employ  is  his,  and  they  may  not  refuse  to  acknowl- 
edge in  him  the  rjrecursor  Gf  religious  subjectivism. 

1  Quod  si  guando  a  quocumque  .  .  .  pontifice  cdiquid  .  .  .  man- 
daretur  quod  esset  contra  fidem  .  .  .  et  caritatem  et  fructus  ejus  tunc 
obediet  Deo  magis  quam  liominïb'us.    Ib.,  p.  561. 

2  Est  [Begula]  et  stat  et  intelligitur  super  eos  .  .  .  Cum  spei  fidu- 
cie* pace  fruemur  cum  conscientiœ  et  Christi  spiritus  testimonio  certo.  Ib., 
pp  563  and  565. 

■Archiv.,  ii..  p.  274. 


336 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


The  Church,  too,  was  not  mistaken.  She  immediately 
understood  the  spirit  that  animated  these  pages. 

Four  years  later,  perhaps  to  the  very  day.  September 
28, 1230,  Ugolini,  then  Gregory  IX.,  solemnly  interpreted 
the  Rule,  in  spite  of  the  precautions  of  Francis,  who  had 
forbidden  all  gloss  or  commentary  on  the  Rule  or  the 
Will,  and  declared  that  the  Brothers  were  not  bound  to 
the  observation  of  the  Will.1 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  bull  in  which  the  pope  alleges 
his  familiar  relations  with  the  Saint  to  justify  his  com- 
mentary, and  in  which  the  clearest  passages  are  so  dis- 
torted as  to  change  their  sense  completely.  "  One  is 
stupefied,"  cries  Ubertini  of  Casali,  "that  a  text  so  clear 
should  have  need  of  a  commentary,  for  it  suffices  to  have 
common  sense  and  to  know  grammar  in  order  to  under- 
stand it."  And  this  strange  monk  dares  to  add  :  "  There 
is  one  miracle  which  God  himself  cannot  do;  it  is  to 
make  two  contradictory  things  true."  2 

Certainly  the  Church  should  be  mistress  in  her  own 
house  ;  it  would  have  been  nothing  wrong  had  Gregory 
IX.  created  an  Order  conformed  to  his  views  and  ideas,  but 
when  we  go  through  Sbaralea's  folios  and  the  thousands 
of  bulls  accorded  to  the  spiritual  sons  of  him  who  in  the 
clearest  and  most  solemn  manner  had  forbidden  them  to 
ask  any  privilege  of  the  court  of  Rome,  we  cannot  but 
feel  a  bitter  sadness. 

Thus  upheld  by  the  papacy,  the  Brothers  of  the  Com- 
mon Observance  made  the  Zelanti  sharply  expiate  their 
attachment  to  Francis's  last  requests.    Csesar  of  Speyer 

1  Ad  mandatum  illud  vos  ditimus  non  teneri:  quod  sine  consensu  Fra- 
trum  maxime  ministrorum,  quos  universos  tangebat  obligare  nequivit  nec 
successorem  suum  quomodolibet  obligavit  ;  cum  non  habeat  imperium  par 
inparem.  The  sophism  is  barely  specious  ;  Francis  was  not  on  a  par 
with  his  successors  ;  he  did  not  act  as  minister-general,  but  as  founder. 

2  Arbor  vit.  crue,  lib.  v.,  cap.  3  and  5.    See  above,  p.  185. 


FRANCIS' S  WILL  AND  DEATH 


337 


died  of  violence  from  the  Brother  placed  in  charge  of 
him  ; 1  the  first  disciple,  Bernardo  di  Quintavalle,  hnnted 
like  a  wild  beast,  passed  two  years  in  the  forests  of  Monte- 
Sefro,  hidden  by  a  wood-cutter  ; 2  the  other  first  compan- 
ions who  did  not  succeed  in  flight  had  to  undergo  the 
severest  usage.  In  the  March  of  Ancona,  the  home  of 
the  Spirituals,  the  victorious  party  used  a  terrible  vio- 
lence. The  Will  was  confiscated  and  destroyed  ;  they 
went  so  far  as  to  burn  it  over  the  head  of  a  friar  who 
persisted  in  desiring  to  observe  it.3 

WILL  (LITERAL  TRANSLATION). 

See  in  what  manner  God  gave  it  to  me,  to  me,  Brother  Francis,  to 
begin  to  do  penitence  ;  when  I  lived  in  sin,  it  was  very  painful  to  me 
to  see  lepers,  hut  God  himself  led  me  into  their  midst,  and  I  remained 
there  a  little  while.4  When  I  left  them,  that  which  had  seemed  to  me 
bitter  had  become  sweet  and  easy. 

A  little  while  after  I  quitted  the  world,  and  God  gave  me  such  a  faith 
in  his  churches  that  I  would  kneel  down  with  simplicity  and  I  would 
say  :  "  We  adore  thee,  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  here  and  in  all  thy  churches 
which  are  in  the  world,  and  we  bless  thee  that  by  thy  holy  cross  thou 
hast  ransomed  the  world." 

Besides,  the  Lord  gave  me  and  still  gives  me  so  great  a  faith  in  priests 
who  live  according  to  the  form  of  the  holy  Roman  Church,  because  of 
their  sacerdotal  character,  that  even  if  they  persecuted  me  I  woul4*have 
recourse  to  them.  And  even  though  I  had  all  the  wisdom  of  Solomon, 
if  I  should  find  poor  secular  priests,  I  would  not  preach  in  their  parishes 
without  their  consent.  I  desire  to  respect  them  like  all  the  others,  to 
love  them  and  honor  them  as  my  lords.    I  will  not  consider  their  sins, 


1  TribuL,  Laur.,  25b  ;  Archie,  i.,  p.  532. 

2  At  the  summit  of  the  Apennines,  about  half  way  between  Camerino 
and  Nocera  (Umbria).    Tribul.,  Laur.,  26b;  Magi.,  135b. 

3  Dedaralio  Ubertini,  Archie,  iii.,  p.  168.  This  fact  is  not  to  be 
questioned,  since  it  is  alleged  in  a  piece  addressed  to  the  pope,  in  re- 
sponse to  the  liberal  friars,  to  whom  it  was  to  be  communicated. 

4  Feci  moram  cum  Wis. ,  MS. ,  333.  Most  of  the  printed  texts  give  mis- 
eracordiam,  which  gives  a  less  satisfactory  meaning.  Cf.  Miscellanea, 
iii.  (1888),  p.  70;  1  Cel.,  17;  3  Soc,  11. 

22 


338 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


for  in  them  I  see  the  Son  of  God  and  they  are  my  lords.  I  do  this  be- 
cause here  below  I  see  nothing,  I  perceive  nothing  corporally  of  the 
most  high  Son  of  God,  if  not  his  most  holy  Body  and  Blood,  which  they 
receive  and  they  alone  distribute  to  others.  I  desire  above  all  things  to 
honor  and  venerate  all  these  most  holy  mysteries  and  to  keep  them  pre- 
cious. Whenever  I  find  the  sacred  names  of  Jesus  or  his  words  in  inde- 
cent places,  I  desire  to  take  them  away,  and  I  pray  that  others  take  them 
away  and  put  them  in  some  decent  place.  We  ought  to  honor  and  re- 
vere all  the  theologians  and  those  who  preach  the  most  holy  word  of 
God,  as  dispensing  to  us  spirit  and  life. 

When  the  Lord  gave  me  some  brothers  no  one  showed  me  what  I  ought 
to  do,  but  the  Most  High  himself,,  revealed  to  me  that  I  ought  to  live 
according  to  the  model  of  the  holy  gospel.  I  caused  a  short  and  simple 
formula  to  be  written,  and  the  lord  pope  confirmed  it  for  me. 

Those  who  presented  themselves  to  observe  this  kind  of  life  distrib- 
uted all  that  they  might  have  to  the  poor.  They  contented  themselves 
with  a  tunic,  patched  within  and  without,  with  the  cord  and  breeches, 
and  we  desired  to  have  nothing  more. 

The  clerks  said  the  office  like  other  clerks,  and  the  laymen  Pater 
noster. 

We  loved  to  live  in  poor  and  abandoned  churches,  and  we  were 
ignorant  and  submissive  to  all.  I  worked  with  my  hands  and  would 
continue  to  do,  and  I  will  also  that  all  other  friars  work  at  some  honor- 
able trade.  Let  those  who  have  none  learn  one,  not  for  the  purpose  of 
receiving  the  price  of  their  toil,  but  for  their  good  example  and  to  flee 
idleness.  And  when  they  do  not  give  us  the  price  of  the  work,  let  us 
resort  to  the  table  of  the  Lord,  begging  our  bread  from  door  to  door. 
The  Lord  revealed  to  me  the  salutation  which  we  ought  to  give  :  "  God 
give  you  peace  !  " 

Let  the  Brothers  take  great  care  not  to  receive  churches,  habitations, 
and  all  that  men  build  for  them,  except  as  all  is  in  accordance  with  the 
holy  poverty  which  we  have  vowed  in  the  Rule,  and  let  them  not  re- 
ceive hospitality  in  them  except  as  strangers  and  pilgrims. 

I  absolutely  interdict  all  the  brothers,  in  whatever  place  they  may  be 
found,  from  asking  any  bull  from  the  court  of  Rome,  whether  directly 
or  indirectly,  under  pretext  of  church  or  convent  or  under  pretext  of 
preachings,  nor  even  for  their  personal  protection.  If  they  are  not  re- 
ceived anywhere  let  them  go  elsewhere,  thus  doing  penance  with  the 
benediction  of  God. 

I  desire  to  obey  the  minister-general  of  this  fraternity,  and  the  guar- 
dian whom  he  may  please  to  give  me.  I  desire  to  put  myself  entirely 
into  his  hands,  to  go  nowhere  and  do  nothing  against  his  will,  for  he  is 
my  lord. 


feancis's  will  axd  death 


339 


Though  I  be  simple  and  ill,  I  would,  however,  have  always  a  clerk  who 
will  perform  the  office,  as  it  is  said  in  the  Rule  ;  let  all  the  other  brothers 
also  be  careful  to  obey  their  guardians  and  to  do  the  office  according 
to  the  Rule.  If  it  come  to  pass  that  there  are  any  who  do  not  the 
office  according  to  the  Rule,  and  who  desire  to  make  any  other  change, 
or  if  they  are  not  Catholics,  let  all  the  Brothers,  wherever  they  may  be, 
be  bound  by  obedience  to  present  them  to  the  nearest  custode.  Let  the 
custodes  be  bound  by  obedience  to  keep  him  well  guarded  like  a  man 
who  is  in  bonds  night  and  day,  so  that  he  may  not  escape  from  their 
hands  until  they  personally  place  him  in  the  minister's  hands.  And  let 
the  minister  be  bound  by  obedience  to  send  him  by  brothers  who  will 
guard  him  as  a  prisoner  day  and  night  until  they  shall  have  placed  him 
in  the  hands  of  the  Lord  Bishop  of  Ostia,  who  is  the  lord,  the  protector, 
and  the  corrector  of  all  the  Fraternity. 1 

And  let  the  Brothers  not  say  :  "  This  is  a  new  Rule  ;  "  for  this  is  a  re- 
minder, a  warning,  an  exhortation  :  it  is  my  Will,  that  I,  little  Brother 
Francis,  make  for  you,  my  blessed  Brothers,  in  order  that  we  may  ob- 
serve in  a  more  catholic  way  the  Rule  which  we  promised  the  Lord  to 
keep. 

Let  the  ministers-general,  all  the  other  ministers  and  the  custodes 
be  held  by  obedience  to  add  nothing  to  and  take  nothing  from  these 
words.  Let  them  alwaj'S  keep  this  writing  near  them,  beside  the  Rule  ; 
and  in  all  the  chapters  which  shall  be  held,  when  the  Rule  is  read  let 
these  words  be  read  also. 

I  interdict  absolutely,  by  obedience,  all  the  Brothers,  clerics  and 
layman,  to  introduce  glosses  in  the  Rule,  or  in  this  Will,  under  pretext 
of  explaining  it.  But  since  the  Lord  has  given  me  to  speak  and  to  write 
the  Rule  and  these  words  in  a  clear  and  simple  manner,  without  com- 
mentary, understand  them  in  the  same  way,  and  put  them  in  practice 
until  the  end. 

And  may  whoever  shall  have  observed  these  thirjgs  be  crowned  in 
heaven  with  the  blessings  of  the  heavenly  Father,  and  on  earth  with 
those  of  his  well-beloved  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit  the  consoler,  with 
the  assistance  of  all  the  heavenly  virtues  and  all  the  saints. 

And  I,  little  Brother  Francis,  your  servitor,  confirm  to  you  so  far  as 
I  am  able  this  most  holy  benediction.  Amen. 

After  thinking  of  his  Brothers  Francis  thought  of  his 
dear  Sisters  at  St.  Damian  and  made  a  will  for  them. 
It  has  not  come  down  to  us,  and  we  need  not  wonder  ; 

1  It  is  evident  that  heresy  is  not  here  in  question.  The  Brothers  who 
were  infected  with  it  were  to  be  delivered  to  the  Church. 


840 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


the  Spiritual  Brothers  might  flee  away,  and  protest  from 
the  depths  of  their  retreats,  but  the  Sisters  were  com- 
pletely unarmed  against  the  machinations  of  the  Com- 
mon Observance.1 

In  the  last  words  that  he  addressed  to  the  Clarisses, 
after  calling  upon  them  to  persevere  in  poverty  and  union, 
he  gave  them  his  benediction.2  Then  he  recommended 
them  to  the  Brothers,  supplicating  the  latter  never  to  for- 
get that  they  were  members  of  one  and  the  same  relig- 
ious family.3  After  having  done  all  that  he  could  for 
those  whom  he  was  about  to  leave,  he  thought  for  a  mo- 
ment of  himself. 

He  had  become  acquainted  in  Rome  with  a  pious  lady 
named  Giacomina  di  Settisoli.  Though  rich,  she  was 
simple  and  good,  entirely  devoted  to  the  new  ideas  ;  even 
the  somewhat  singular  characteristics  of  Francis  pleased 
her.  He  had  given  her  a  lamb  which  had  become  her 
insep arable  companion . 4 

Unfortunately  all  that  concerns  her  has  suffered  much 
from  later  retouchings  of  the  legend.  The  perfectly 
natural  conduct  of  the  Saint  with  women  has  much  em- 
barrassed his  biographers;  hence  heavy  and  distorted 
commentaries  tacked  on  to  episodes  of  a  delicious  sim- 
plicity. 

Before  dying  Francis  desired  to  see  again  this  friend, 

1  Urban  IV.  published,  October  18,  1263,  Potthast  (18680),  a  Rule  for 
the  Clarisses  which  completely  changed  the  character  of  this  Order. 
Its  author  was  the  cardinal  protector  Giovanni  degli  Ursini  (the  future 
Nicholas  III.),  who  by  way  of  precaution  forbade  the  Brothers  Minor 
under  the  severest  penalties  to  dissuade  the  Sisters  from  accepting  it. 
"  It  differs  as  much  from  the  first  Rule,"  said  Ubertini  di  Casali  "as 
black  and  white,  the  savory  and  the  insipid."  Arbor,  vît.  crue.  lib.  v., 
cap.  vi. 

2  V.  Test.  B.  Clarœ;  Conform.,  185a  1  ;  Spec,  117b. 

3  2  Cel.,  3,  132. 

4  Bon.,  112. 


FRANCIS'S  WILL  AXD  DEATH 


341 


whom  lie  smilingly  called  Brother  Giacomina.  He  caused 
a  letter  to  be  written  her  to  come  to  Portiuncula  ;  we 
can  imagine  the  dismay  of  the  narrators  at  this  far  from 
monastic  invitation. 

But  the  good  lady  had  anticipated  his  appeal  :  at  the 
.moment  when  the  messenger  with  the  letter  was  about  to 
leave  for  Borne,  she  arrived  at  Portiuncula  and  remained 
there  until  the  last  sigh  of  the  Saint.1  For  one  moment 
she  thought  of  sending  away  her  suite  ;  the  invalid  was 
so  calm  and  joyful  that  she  could  not  believe  him  dying, 
but  he  himself  advised  her  to  keep  her  people  with  her. 
This  time  he  felt  with  no  possible  doubt  that  his  captivity 
was  about  to  be  ended. 

He  was  ready,  he  had  finished  his  work. 

Did  he  think  then  of  the  day  when,  cursed  by  his 
father,  he  had  renounced  all  earthly  goods  and  cried  to 
God  with  an  ineffable  confidence,  "  Our  Father  who  art 
in  heaven  !  ';  We  cannot  say  ;  but  he  desired  to  finish 
his  life  by  a  symbolic  act  which  very  closely  recalls  the 
scene  in  the  bishop's  palace. 

He  caused  himself  to  be  stripped  of  his  clothing  and 
laid  upon  the  ground,  for  he  wished  to  die  in  the  arms 
of  his  Lady  Poverty.  "With  one  glance  he  embraced  the 
twenty  years  that  had  glided  by  since  their  union  :  "I 

1  Tlie  Bollandists  deny  this  whole  story,  which  they  find  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  prescriptions  of  Francis  himself.  A.  SS. ,  p.  664  ff.  Bat  it 
is  difficult  to  see  for  what  object  authors  who  take  great  pains  to  explain 
it  could  have  had  for  inventing  it.  Sjxc,  133a;  Fior.  iv.  ;  consid.; 
Conform. ,  240a.  I  have  borrowed  the  whole  account  from  Bernard  of 
Besse  :  De  Laudibus,  r  113b.  It  appears  that  Giacomina  settled  for  the 
rest  of  her  life  at  Assish  that  she  might  gain  edification  from  the  first 
companions  of  Francis.  Spec,  107b.  (What  a  lovely  scene,  and  with 
what  a  Franciscan  fragrance!)  The  exact  date  of  her  death  is  not 
known.  She  was  buried  in  the  lower  church  of  the  basilica  of  Assisi, 
and  on  her  tomb  was  engraved  :  Hie  jo.  tit  Jamba  mneta  nob  Risque  ro- 
man a.  Vide  Fratini  :  Storia  della  basilica,  p.  48.  Cf.  Jacobilli:  Vite 
dei  Santi  e  Beati  dell'  Umbria,  Foligno,  3  vols.,  4to,  1647  ;  i.  .  p.  214. 


342 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


have  done  my  duty,"  he  said  to  the  Brothers,  "  may  the 
Christ  now  teach  you  yours  !" 1 
This  was  Thursday,  October  l.2 

They  laid  him  back  upon  his  bed,  and,  conforming  to 
his  wishes,  they  again  sang  to  him  the  Canticle  of  the 
Sun. 

At  times  he  added  his  voice  to  those  of  his  Brothers, 3 
and  came  back  with  preference  to  Psalm  142,  Voce  mea 
ad  Dominum  clamaviJ 

With  my  voice  I  cry  unto  the  Lord, 

With  my  voice  I  implore  the  Lord, 

I  pour  out  my  complaint  before  him, 

I  tell  him  all  my  distress. 

When  my  spirit  is  cast  down  within  me, 

Thou  knowest  my  path. 

Upon  the  way  where  I  walk 

They  have  laid  a  snare  for  me, 

Cast  thine  eyes  to  the  right  and  look  ! 

No  one  recognizes  me  ; 

All  refuge  is  lost  for  me, 

No  one  takes  thought  for  my  soul. 

Lord,  unto  thee  I  cry  ; 

I  say  :  Thou  art  my  refuge, 

My  portion  in  the  land  of  the  living. 

Be  attentive  to  my  cries  ! 

For  I  am  very  unhappy. 

Deliver  me  from  those  who  pursue  me  ! 

For  they  are  stronger  than  I. 

Bring  my  soul  out  of  its  prison 

That  I  may  praise  thy  name. 

The  righteous  shall  compass  me  about 

When  thou  hast  done  good  unto  me  ! 

The  visits  of  death  are  always  solemn,  but  the  end  of 
the  just  is  the  most  moving  sur  sum  corda  that  we  can 

1  2  Cel.,  3,  139  ;  Bon.,  209,  210  ;  Conform.,  171b,  2. 

2  2  Cel. ,  3,  139  :  Cum  me  vider  itis  .  .  .  sicut  me  nudius  ter  tin  s 
nudum  vidistis. 

3  1  Cel.,  109  ;  2  Cel.,  3,  139. 
*  1  Cel.,  109  ;  Bon.,  212. 


Francis's  will  and  death 


343 


hear  on  earth.  The  hours  flowed  by  and  the  Brothers 
would  not  leave  him.  "  Alas,  good  Father,"  said  one  of 
them  to  him,  unable  longer  to  contain  himself,  "  your 
children  are  going  to  lose  you,  and  be  deprived  of  the 
true  light  which  lightened  them  :  think  of  the  orphans 
you  are  leaving  and  forgive  all  their  faults,  give  to  them 
all,  present  and  absent,  the  joy  of  your  holy  bene- 
diction." 

"  See,"  replied  the  dying  man,  "  God  is  calling  me.  I 
forgive  all  my  Brothers,  present  and  absent,  their  offences 
and  faults,  and  absolve  them  according  to  my  power. 
Tell  them  so,  and  bless  them  all  in  my  name."  1 

Then  crossing  his  arms  he  laid  his  hands  upon  those 
who  surrounded  him.  He  did  this  with  peculiar  emo- 
tion to  Bernard  of  Quintavalle  :  c;  I  desire,"  he  said, 
"  and  with  all  my  power  I  urge  whomsoever  shall  be  min- 
ister-general of  the  Order,  to  love  and  honor  him  as  my- 
self ;  let  the  provincials  and  all  the  Brothers  act  toward 
him  as  toward  me.2  " 

He  thought  not  only  of  the  absent  Brothers  but  of  the 
future  ones  ;  love  so  abounded  in  him  that  it  wrung  from 
him  a  groan  of  regret  for  not  seeing  all  those  who  should 
enter  the  Order  down  to  the  end  of  time,  that  he  might 
lay  his  hand  upon  their  brows,  and  make  them  feel  those 
things  that  may  only  'be  spoken  by  the  eyes  of  him  who 
loves  in  God.3 

He  had  lost  the  notion  of  time  ;  believing  that  it  was 
still  Thursday  he  desired  to  take  a  last  meal  with  his 
disciples.  Some  bread  was  brought,  he  broke  it  and  gave 
it  to  them,  and  there  in  the  poor  cabin  of  Portiuncula, 

1  1  Cel.,  109.    Cf.  Ejrist.  Elm. 

-  Tribul.  Laur. ,  22b.  Xotbing  better  sbows  the  bistoric  value  of  tbe 
cbronicle  of  tbe  Tribulations  tban  to  compare  its  story  of  tbese  moments 
witb  tbat  of  tbe  following  documents:  Conform.,  48b,  1;  185a,  2; 
Fior.,  6.;  Spec,  86a. 

3  2  Cel.,  3.  139  ;  Spec.,  116b  ;  Conform.,  224b,  1. 


344 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


without  altar  and  without  a  priest,  was  celebrated  the 
Lord's  Supper.1 

A  Brother  read  the  Gospel  for  Holy  Thursday,  Ante 
diem  festum  Paschœ  :  "  Before  the  feast  of  the  Passover, 
Jesus  knowing  that  his  hour  was  come  to  go  from  this 
world  to  the  Father,  having  loved  his  own  who  were  in 
the  world  he  loved  them  unto  the  end." 

The  sun  was  -gilding  the  crests  of  the  mountains  with 
his  last  rays,  there  was  silence  around  the  dying  one. 
All  was  ready.    The  angel  of  death  might  come. 

Saturday,  October  3,  1226,  at  nightfall,  without  pain, 
without  struggle,  he  breathed  the  last  sigh. 

The  Brothers  were  still  gazing  on  his  face,  hoping  yet 
to  ^atch  some  sign  of  life,  when  innumerable  larks 
alighted,  singing,  on  the  thatch  of  his  cell,2  as  if  to  salute 
the  soul  which  had  just  taken  flight  and  give  the  Little 
Poor  Man  the  canonization  of.  which  he  was  most  worthy, 
the  only  one,  doubtless,  which  he  would  ever  have  cov- 
eted. 

On  the  morrow,  at  dawn,  the  Assisans  came  down  to 
take  possession  of  his  body  and  give  it  a  triumphant  fu- 
neral. 

By  a  pious  inspiration,  instead  of  going  straight  to  the 
city,  they  went  around  by  St.  Damian,  and  thus  was  rea- 
lized •  the  promise  made  by  Francis  to  the  Sisters  a  few 
weeks  before^  to  come  once  more  to  see  them. 

1  2  Cel.,  3,  139.  A  simple  comparison  between  this  story  in  the  Spec- 
ulum (116b)  and  that  in  the  Conformities  (224b,  1)  is  enough  to  show 
how  in  certain  of  its  parts  the  Speculum  represents  a  state  of  the  legend 
anterior  to  1385. 

2  Bon. ,  214.  This  cell  has  been  transformed  into  a  chapel  and  may 
be  found  a  few  yards  from  the  little  church  of  Portiuncula.  Church 
and  chapel  are  now  sheltered  under  the  great  Basilica  of  Santa  Maria 
degli  Angeli.  See  the  picture  and  plan,  A.  SS. ,  p.  814,  or  better  still  in 
P.  Barnabas  au  s  dem  Elsass,  Portiuncula  oder  Geschichte  JJ.  L.  F.  v. 
den  Engeln.    Rixheim,  1884,  1  vol.,  8vo,  pp.  311  and  312. 


FRANCIS'S  WILL  AND  DEATH 


345 


Their  grief  was  heart-rending. 

These  women's  hearts  revolted  against  the  absurdity 
of  death  ; 1  but  there  were  tears  on  that  day  at  St.  Da- 
mian  only.  The  Brothers  forgot  their  sadness  on  seeing 
the  stigmata,  and  the  inhabitants  of  Assisi  manifested  an 
indescribable  joy  on  having  their  relic  at  last.  They  de- 
posited it  in  the  Church.  St.  George.'2 

Less  than  two  years  after,  Sunday,  July  26,  1228, 
Gregory  IX.  came  to  Assisi  to  preside  in  person  over  the 
ceremonies  of  canonization,  and  to  lay,  on  the  morrow, 
the  first  stone  of  the  new  church  dedicated  to  the  Stig- 
matized. 

Built  under  the  inspiration  of  Gregory  IX  and  the 
direction  of  Brother  Elias,  this  marvellous  basilica  is  also 
one  of  the  documents  of  this  history,  and  perhaps  I  have 
been  wrong  in  neglecting  it. 

Go  and  look'  upon  it,  proud,  rich,  powerful,  then  go 
down  to  Portiuncula,  pass  over  to  St.  Damian,  hasten  to 
the  Carceri,  and  you  will  understand  the  abyss  that  sep- 
arates the  ideal  of  Francis  from  that  of  the  pontiff  who 
canonized  him. 

1  1  Cel.,  116  and  117  ;  Bon...  219  ;  Conform.  185a,  1. 

2  To-day  in  the  dotureoî  the  convent  St.  Clara  Vide  Miscellanea  1, 
pp.  44-48,  a  very  interesting  study  by  Prof.  Carattoli  upon  the  coffin  of 
St.  Francis. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


SUMMARY 

I.  St.  Fkancts's  Works. 


II.  Biographies  Properly  So  Called. 

1.  Preliminary  Note. 

2.  First  Life  by  Thomas  of  Celano. 

3.  Review  of  the  History  of  the  Order  1230-1244 

4.  Legend  of  the  Three  Companions, 

5.  Fragments  of  the  Suppressed  Portion  of  the  Legend. 

6.  Second  Life  by  Thomas  of  Celano.    First  Part. 

7.  Second  Life  by  Thomas  of  Celano.    Second  Part. 

8.  Documents  of  Secondary  Importance  : 

Biography  for  Use  of  the  Choir. 
Life  in  Verse. 

Biography  by  Giovanni  cli  Ceperano, 
life  by  Brother  Julian. 

9.  Legend  of  St.  Bonaventura. 

10.  De  Landibus  of  Bernard  of  Besse, 

III.  Diplomatic  Documents. 

1.  Donation  of  the  Verna. 

2.  Registers  of  Cardinal  Ugolini 

3.  Bulls. 


348  LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 

IV.  Chroniclers  of  the  Order. 

1.  Chronicle  of  Brother  Giordano  di  Giano. 

2.  Eccleston  :  Arrival  of  the  Friars  in  England, 

3.  Chronicle  of  Fra  Salimbeni. 

4.  Chronicle  of  the  Tribulations. 

5.  The  Fioretti  and  their  Appendices. 

6.  Chronicle  of  the  XXIV.  Generals. 

7.  The  Conformities  of  Bartolommeo  di  Pisa. 

8.  Glassberger's  Chronicle. 

9.  Chronicle  of  Mark  of  Lisbon. 

V.  Chroniclers  not  of  the  Order. 

1.  Jacques  de  Vitry. 

2.  Thomas  of  Spalato. 

3.  Divers  Chroniclers,, 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


There  are  few  lives  in  history  so  abundantly  provided 
with  documents  as  that  of  St.  Francis.  This  will  perhaps 
surprise  the  reader,  but  to  convince  himself  he  has  only 
to  run  over  the  preceding  list,  which,  however,  has  been 
made  as  succinct  as  possible. 

It  is  admitted  in  learned  circles  that  the  essential  ele- 
ments of  this  biography  have  disappeared  or  have  been 
entirely  altered.  The  exaggeration  of  certain  religious 
writers,  who  accept  everything,  and  among  several  ac- 
counts of  the  same  fact  always  choose  the  longest  and 
most  marvellous,  has  led  to  a  like  exaggeration  in  the 
contrary  sense. 

If  it  were  necessary  to  point  out  the  results  of  these 
two  excesses  as  they  affect  each  event,  this  volume  would 
need  to  be  twice  and  even  four  times  as  large  as  it  is. 
Those  who  are  interested  in  these  questions  will  find  in 
the  notes  brief  indications  of  the  original  documents  on 
which  each  narrative  is  based.1 

To  close  the  subject  of  the  errors  which  are  current  in 
the  Franciscan  documents,  and  to  show  in  a  few  lines 
their  extreme  importance,  I  shall  take  two  examples. 
Among  our  own  contemporaries  no  one  has  so  well 
spoken  on  the  subject  of  St.  Francis  as  M.  Renan  ;  he 
comes  back  to  him  with  affecting  piety,  and  he  was  in  a 

1  If  any  student  finds  himself  embarrassed  by  the  extreme  rarity  of 
certain  works  cited,  I  shall  make  it  my  duty  and  pleasure  to  send  them 
to  him,  as  well  as  a  copy  of  the  Italian  manuscripts. 


350 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


better  condition  than  any  one  to  know  the  sources  of  this 
history.  And  yet  he  does  not  hesitate  to  say  in  his  study 
of  the  Canticle  of  the  Sun,  Francis's  best  known  work  : 
"  The  authenticity  of  this  piece  appears  certain,  but  we 
must  observe  that  we  have  not  the  Italian  original.  The 
Italian  text  which  we  possess  is  a  translation  of  a  Port- 
uguese version,  which  was  itself  translated  from  the 
Spanish."  1 

And  yet  the  primitive  Italian  exists2  not  only  in 
numerous  manuscripts  in  Italy  and  France,  particularly 
in  the  Mazarine  Library,3  but  also  in  the  well-known 
book  of  the  Conformities* 

An  error,  grave  from  quite  another  point  of  view,  is 
made  by  the  same  author  when  he  denies  the  authenticity 
of  St.  Francis's  Will  ;  this  piece  is  not  only  the  noblest 
expression  of  its  author's  religious  feeling,  it  constitutes 
also  a  sort  of  autobiography,  and  contains  the  solemn 
and  scarcely  disguised  revocation  of  all  the  concessions 
which  had  been  wrung  from  him.  We  have  already 
seen  that  its  authenticity  is  not  to  be  challenged.5  This 
double  example  will,  I  hope,  suffice  to  show  the  necessity 
of  beginning  this  study  by  a  conscientious  examination 
of  the  sources. 

If  the  eminent  historian  to  whom  I  have  alluded  were 

1  E.  Renan  :  Nouvelles  études  d'histoire  religieuse,  Paris,  1884,  8vo,  p. 
331. 

2  See  above,  pp.  304  ff. 

3  Mazarine  Library,  MS.  8531  :  Speculum  perfectionis  S.  Francisci  ; 
the  Canticle  is  found  at  fo.  51.  Cf.  MS.,  1350  (date  of  1459).  That  text 
was  published  by  Boehmer  in  the  Romanische  Studien,  Halle,  1871,  pp. 
118-122.    Ber  Sonnengesang  v.  Fr.  cPA. 

4  Conform.  (Milan,  1510),  202b,  2s.  For  that  matter  it  is  correct  that 
Diola,  in  the  Croniche  degli  ordini  instituti  da  8.  Francisco  (Venice,  1606, 
3  vols.  4to),  translated  after  the  Castilian  version  of  the  work  composed 
in  Portuguese  by  Mark  of  Lisbon,  was  foolish  enough  to  render  into 
Italian  this  translation  of  a  translation. 

6  See  pages  333  ff. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


351 


still  living,  he  would  have  for  this  page  his  large  and 
benevolent  smile,  that  simple,  Oui,  oui,  which  once  made 
his  pupils  in  the  little  hall  of  the  College  de  France  to 
tremble  with  emotion. 

I  do  not  know  what  he  would  think  of  this  book,  but  I 
well  know  that  he  would  love  the  spirit  in  which  it  was 
undertaken,  and  would  easily  pardon  me  for  having 
chosen  him  for  scape-goat  of  my  wrath  against  the 
learned  men  and  biographers. 

The  documents  to  be  examined  have  been  divided  into 
five  categories. 

The  first  includes  St.  Francis's  ivories. 

The  second,  biographies  properly  so  called. 

The  third,  diplomatic  documents. 

The  fourth,  chronicles  of  the  Order. 

The  fifth,  chronicles  of  authors  not  of  the  Order. 


I 

ST.  FRANCIS'S  WORKS 

The  writings  of  St.  Francis 1  are  assuredly  the  best 
source  of  acquaintance  with  him  ;  we  can  only  be  sur- 
prised to  find  them  so  neglected  by  most  of  his  biog- 
raphers. It  is  true  '  that  they  give  little  information  as 
to  his  life,  and  furnish  neither  dates  nor  facts,2  but  they 

Collected  first  by  Wadding  (Antwerp,  1623,  4to),  they  have  been 
published  many  times  since  then,  particularly  by  De  la  Hare  (Paris, 
1641,  f:).  These  two  editions  having  become  scarce,  were  repub- 
lished— in  a  very  unsatisfactory  manner — by  the  Abbé  Horoy  :  S.  Fran- 
cisci  Assisiatis  opera  omnia  (Paris,  1880,  4to).  For  want  of  a  more 
exact  edition,  that,  of  Father  Bernardo  da  Fivizzano  is  the  most  useful  : 
Opuscoli  di  S.  Francesco  d? Assist,  1  vol.  ,  12mo,pp.  564,  Florence,  1880. 
The  Latin  text  is  accompanied  by  an  Italian  translation. 

2  '"''Die  Brief e,  die  unter  seinem  JYamen  gelien,  rnogen  tlieiliceise  âcht 
sein.  Abe?'  sie  tragen  kaum  eticas  zur  nciheren  Kenntnm  bei  und  konnen 


352 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


do  better,  they  mark  the  stages  of  his  thought  and  of  his 
spiritual  development.  The  legends  give  us  Francis  as 
he  appeared,  and  by  that  very  fact  suffer  in  some  degree 
the  compulsion  of  circumstances  ;  they  are  obliged  to 
bend  to  the  exigencies  of  his  position  as  general  of  an 
Order  approved  by  the  Church,  as  miracle- worker,  and  as 
saint.  His  works,  on  the  contrary,  show  us  his  very 
soul  ;  each  phrase  has  not  only  been  thought,  but  lived  ; 
they  bring  us  the  Poverello's  emotions,  still  alive  and 
palpitating. 

So,  when  in  the  writings  of  the  Franciscans  Ave  find  any 
utterance  of  their  master,  it  unconsciously  betrays  itself, 
sounding  out  suddenly  in  a  sweet,  pure  tone  which  pen- 
etrates to  your  very  heart,  awakening  with  a  thrill  a 
sprite  that  was  sleeping  there. 

This  bloom  of  love  enduing  St.  Francis's  words  would 
be  an  admirable  criterion  of  the  authenticity  of  those  opus- 
cules which  tradition  attributes  to  him  ;  but  the  work  of 
testing  is  neither  long  nor  difficult.  If  after  his  time  inju- 
dicious attempts  were  here  and  there  made  to  honor  him 
with  miracles  which  he  did  not  perform,  which  he  would 
not  even  have  wished  to  perform,  no  attempt  was  ever 
made  to  burden  his  literary  efforts  with  false  or  supposi- 
titious pieces.1  The  best  proof  of  this  is  that  it  is  not 
until  Wadding — that  is  to  say,  until  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury— that  we  find  the  first  and  only  serious  attempt  to 
collect  these  precious  memorials.    Several  of  them  have 

daher  fast  gam  ausser  Aclit  bleiben.v  Millier,  Die  Anfânge  des  Minori- 
tenordens,  Freiburg,  1  vol.,  8vo,  1885,  p.  3. 

1  Pieces  have  been  often  attributed  to  St.  Francis  which  do  not  be- 
long to  him  ;  but  those  are  unintentional  errors  and  made  without  pur- 
pose. The  desire  for  literary  exactness  is  relatively  of  recent  date,  and 
it  was  easier  for  those  who  were  ignorant  of  the  author  of  certain  Fran- 
ciscan writings  to  attribute  them  to  St.  Francis  than  to  admit  their  ig- 
norance or  to  make  deep  researches. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


353 


been  lost,1  but  those  which  remain  are  enough  to  give  us 
in  some  sort  the  refutation  of  the  legends. 

In  these  pages  Francis  gives  himself  to  his  readers, 
as  long  ago  he  gave  himself  to  his  companions  ;  in  each 
one  of  them  a  feeling,  a  cry  of  the  heart,  or  an  aspira- 
tion toward  the  Invisible  is  prolonged  down  to  our  own 
time. 

Wadding  thought  it  his  duty  to  give  a  place  in  his 
collection  to  several  suspicious  pieces  ;  more  than  this, 
instead  of  following  the  oldest  manuscripts  that  he  had 
before  him,  he  often  permitted  himself  to  be  led  astray 
by  sixteenth-century  writers  whose  smallest  concern  was 
to  be  critical  and  accurate.  To  avoid  the  tedious  and 
entirely  negative  task  to  which  it  would  be  necessary  to 
proceed  if  I  took  him  for  my  starting-point  I  shall  con- 
fine myself  to  a  positive  study  of  this  question. 

All  the  pieces  which  will  be  enumerated  are  found  in 
his  collection.  They  are  sometimes  cut  up  in  a  singular 
way  ;  but  in  proportion  as  each  document  is  studied  we 

1  For  example,  the  first  Rule  ;  probably  also  a  few  canticles  ;  a  letter 
to  the  Brothers  in  France,  Eccl. ,  6;  another  to  the  Brothers  in  Bo- 
logna :  "  Prœdixerat  per  Utteram  in  qua  fuit  plurimum  lalinum"  Eccl., 
ib.  ;  a  letter  to  Antony  of  Padua,  other  than  the  one  we  have,  since  on 
the  witness  of  Celano  it  was  addressed  :  Fratri  Antonio  episcopo  meo  (2 
Cel.,  3,  99)  ;  certain  letters  to  St.  Clara  :  "  Scripsit  Clarœ  et  soroiibus  ad 
consolationem  Utteram  in  qua  dabat  benedictionem  suam  et  absolvebat," 
etc.  Conform.,  F.  185a,  1  ;  cf.  Test.  B.  Clarœ.  A.  SS.,  Augusti,  t.  ii.,  p. 
767  :  "  Piura  scripta  tradidit  nobis,  ne  post  mortem  suam  declinaremus  a 
paupertate  ;"  certain  letters  to  Cardinal  TJgolini,  3  Soc,  67. 

It  is  not  to  negligence  alone  that  we  must  attribute  the  loss  of  many 
of  the  epistles  :  "  Quod  nephas  est  cogitare,  in  provincia  Marcliie  et  in 
plurïbus  aliis  locis  testamentum  beati  Francisci  mandaverunt  (prelati  or- 
dinis)  districte  per  obedientiam  ab  omnibus  auferi  et  comburi.  Et  uni 
fratri  devoto  et  sancto,  cujus  nomen  est  N.  de  Eocanato  combuxerunt  dic- 
um  testamentum  super  caput  suum.  Et  toto  conatu  fuerunt  solliciti,  an- 
nulare scripta  beati  pair  is  nostri  Francisci,  in  quibus  sua  intentio  de  ob- 
servantia  régule  declarator."  Ubertino  di  Casali,  apud  Archiv.,  iii. ,  pp. 
168-169. 

23 


354 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


shall  find  sufficient  indications  to  enable  us  to  make  the 
necessary  rectifications. 

The  archives  of  Sacro  Convento  of  Assisi  1  possess  a 
manuscript  whose  importance  is  not  to  be  overestimated. 
It  has  already  been  many  times  studied,2  and  bears  the 
number  338. 

It  appears,  however,  that  a  very  important  detail  of 
form  has  been  overlooked.  It  is  this  :  that  No.  338  is 
not  one  manuscript,  but  a  collection  of  manuscripts  of  very 
different  periods,  which  were  put  together  because  they 
were  of  very  nearly  the  same  size,  and  have  been  foliated 
in  a  peculiar  manner. 

This  artificial  character  of  the  collection  shows  that 
each  of  the  pieces  which  compose  it  needs  to  be  exam- 
ined by  itself,  and  that  it  is  impossible  to  say  of  it  as  a 
whole  that  it  is  of  the  thirteenth  or  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury. 

The  part  that  interests  us  is  perfectly  homogeneous, 
is  formed  of  three  parchment  books  (fol.  12a-44b)  and 
contains  a  part  of  Francis's  works. 

1.  The  Rule,  definitively  approved  by  Honorius  III., 
November  20,  1223  3  (fol.  12a-16a). 

2.  St.  Francis's  Will4  (fol.  16a-18a). 

3.  The  Admonitions  5  (fol.  18a-23b). 

4.  The  Letter  to  all  Christians  6  (fol.  23b-28a). 

1  Italy  is  too  obliging  to  artists,  archaeologists,  and  scholars  not  to  do 
them  the  favor  of  disposing  in  a  more  practical  manner  this  trust,  the 
most  precious  of  all  Umbria.  Even  with  the  indefatigable  kindness 
)f  the  curator,  M.  Alessandro,  and  of  the  municipality  of  Assisi,  it  is 
very  difficult  to  profit  by  these  treasures  heaped  up  in  a  dark  room 
"without  a  table  to  write  upon. 

2  In  particular  by  Ehrle  :  Die  Mstorischen  Handschriften  von  S. 
Francesco  in  Assisi.    Archiv.,  t.  i.,  p.  484. 

3  See  pages  252  ff    .    .    .    and  283. 

4  See  pages  333  ff. 
6  See  pages  259  ff 
*  See  page  325  ff . 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES  355 

5.  The  letter  to  all  the  members  of  the  Order  assem- 
bled in  Chapter-general1  (fol.  28a-31a). 

6.  Counsel  to  all  clerics  on  the  respect  to  be  paid  to 
the  Eucharist 2  (fol.3  31b-32b). 

7.  A  very  short  piece  preceded  by  the  rubric  :  "  Of  the 
virtues  which  adorn  the  Virgin  Mary  and  which  ought  to 
adorn  the  holy  soul  "  3  (fol.  32b). 

8.  The  Laudes  Creaturariim,  or  Canticle  of  the  Sun  4 
(fol.  33a). 

9.  À  paraphrase  of  the  Pater  introduced  by  the 
rubric:  Incipiunt  laudes  quas  ordinavit.  B.  pater  noster 
Fro.nciscus  et  dicebat  ipsas  ad  omnes  lieras  diei  et  noctis  et 
arde  otnciuïii  B.  V.  Mar iœ  sic  incipiens  :  Sanctissime  Pater5 
(fol.  34a). 

10.  The  office  of  the  Passion  (34b-43a).  ■  This  office, 
where  the  psalms  are  replaced  by  several  series  of  bibli- 
cal verses,  are  designed  to  make  him  who  repeats  them 
follow,  hour  by  hour,  the  emotions  of  the  Crucified  One 
from  the  evening  of  Holy  Thursday.6 

11.  À  rule  for  friars  in  retreat  in  hermitages 7  (fol.  43a- 
43b). 

1  See  pages  322  ff. 

2  See  page  327. 

3 1  give  it  entire:  u  Begina  sapientia,  Bominus  te  salvet,  cum  tua 
sorore  sancta  pura  simplicitate . — Bomina  sancta  paupertas,  Bominus  te 
salvet,  cum  tua  sorore  sancta  humilitate. — Bomina  sancta  caritas,  Bomi- 
nus te  salvet,  cum  tua  sorrore  sancta  obedientia.  Sanctissimœ  virtutes 
omnes,  vos  salvet  Bominus,  a  quo  venitis  et  procédais."  Its  authenticity  is 
guaranteed  by  a  citation  by  Celano  :  2  Cel.,  3,  119.    Cf.  126b  and  127a. 

4  See  pages  304  f. 

5 1  shall  not  recur  to  this  :  the  text  is  in  the  Conformities  138a  2. 

6  The  authenticity  of  this  service,  to  which  there  is  not  a  single  allu- 
sion in  the  biographies  of  St.  Francis,  is  rendered  certain  by  the  life  of 
St.  Clara  :  "  Officium  crucis,  prout  crucis  amator  Franciscus  instituerai 
{Clara)  didicit  et  affectu  simili  frequentavit.  A.  SS.,  Augusti,  t.  ii.,  p. 
761a. 

7  It  begins  :  llli  qui  volunt  stare  in  Jieremk.  This  text  is  also  found 
in  the  Conformities,  143a,  1.    Cf.  2  Cel.,  3,  43  ;  see  p.  97. 


356 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


A  glance  over  this  list  is  enough  to  show  that  the 
works  of  Francis  here  collected  are  addressed  to  all 
the  Brothers,  or  are  a  sort  of  encyclicals,  which  they  are 
charged  to  pass  on  to  those  for  whom  they  are  destined. 

The  very  order  of  these  pieces  shows  us  that  we  have 
in  this  manuscript  the  primitive  library  of  the  Brothers 
Minor,  the  collection  of  which  each  minister  was  to  carry 
with  him  a  copy.    It  was  truly  their  viaticum. 

Matthew  Paris  tells  us  of  his  amazement  at  the  sight 
of  these  foreign  monks,  clothed  in  patched  tunics,  and 
carrying  their  books  in  a  sort  of  case  suspended  from 
their  necks.1 

The  Assisi  manuscript  was  without  doubt  destined  to 
this  service  ;  if  it  is  silent  on  the  subject  of  the  journeys 
it  has  made,  and  of  the  Brothers  to  whom  it  has  been  a 
guide  and  an  inspiration,  it  at  least  brings  us,  more  than 
all  the  legends,  into  intimacy  with  Francis,  makes  us 
thrill  in  unison  with  that  heart  which  never  admitted  a 
separation  between  joy,  love,  and  poetry.  As  to  the  date 
of  this  manuscript,  one  must  needs  be  a  paleographer  to 
determine.  We  have  already  found  a  hypothesis  which, 
if  well  grounded,  would  carry  it  back  to  the  neighborhood 
of  1240.2 

Its  contents  seem  to  countenance  this  early  date.  In 
fact,  it  contains  several  pieces  of  which  the  Manual  of  the 
Brother  Minor  very  early  rid  itself. 

Very  soon  they  were  content  to  have  only  the  Bule  to 
keep  company  with  the  breviary  ;  sometimes  they  added 
the  Will.  But  the  other  writings,  if  they  did  not  fall  en- 
tirely into  neglect,  ceased  at  least  to  be  of  daily  usage. 

1  Nudis  pedibvs  incedentes,  funiculis  cincti,  tunicis  griseis  et  talaribus 
peciatis,  insuto  capucio  utentes  .  .  .  nihil  sibi  ultra  noctem  réservan- 
tes .  .  .  libros  continue  suos  .  .  .  in  forulis  a  collo  dependentes 
bajulantes.  Historia  Anglorum,  Pertz  :  Script.,  t.  28,  p.  397.  Cf.  2 
Cel.,  3,  135;  Fior.,  5;  Spec.,  45b. 

2  See  page  322  n. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


357 


Those  of  St.  Francis's  writings  which  are  not  of  general 
interest  or  do  not  concern  the  Brothers  naturally  find  no 
place  in  this  collection.  In  this  new  category  we  must 
range  the  following  documents  : 

1.  The  Eule  of  1221.1 

2.  The  Eule  of  the  Clarisses,  which  we  no  longer  pos- 
sess in  its  original  form.2 

3.  A  sort  of  special  instruction  for  ministers-general.3 

4.  A  letter  to  St.  Clara.4 

5.  Another  letter  to  the  same.5 

6.  A  letter  to  Brother  Leo.6 

7.  A  few  prayers.7 

8.  The  benediction  of  Brother  Leo.  The  original  auto- 
graph, which  is  preserved  in  the  treasury  of  Sacro  Con- 
vento,  has  been  very  well  reproduced  by  heliograph.8 

1  See  page  252.  2  See  page  157.  3  See  pages  318  ff. 

4  See  page  239.  5  See  page  327.  6  See  page  262. 

7  a.  Sanctus  Dominus  Deus  rwster.  Cf.  Spec.,  126a;  Firm  am  entum, 
18b,  2  ;  Conform, ,  202b,  1. 

b.  Aie  Domina  smcta.    Cf.  Spec,  127a;  Conform.,  138a,  2. 

c.  Sancta  Maria  virgo.    Cf.  Spec,  126b;  Conform.,  202b,  2. 

8  Vide  S.  François,  in  4to.  Paris.  1885  (Plon),  p.  233.  The  authenticity 
of  this  benediction  appears  to  be  well  established,  since  it  was  already 
jealously  guarded  during  the  life  of  Thomas  of  Celano.  No  one  has  ever 
dreamed  of  requiring  historical  proof  of  this  writing.  Is  this  perhaps 
a  mistake  ?  The  middle  of  the  sheet  is  taken  up  with  the  benediction 
which  was  dictated  to  Brother  Leo  :  Benedicat  tibi  Dominus  et  custodiat 
te,  ostendat  faciem  suam  tibi  et  misereatur  tui  concertât  vultum  suum  ad 
te  et  det  tibi  pacem.  At  the  bottom,  Francis  added  the  letter  tau,  T, 
which  was,  so  to  speak,  his  signature  (Bon.,  51  ;  308),  and  the  words  : 
Frater  Leo  Dominus  benedicat  te. 

Then  when  this  memorial  became  a  part  of  the  relics  of  the  Saint, 
Brother  Leo,  to  authenticate  it  in  a  measure,  added  the  following  notes: 
toward  the  middle  :  Beatus  Franciscus  scripsit  manu  sua  istam  bene- 
dictionem  mihi  fratri  Leoni  ;  toward  the  close  :  Simili  modo  fecit  istud 
signum  thau  cum  capite  manu  sua.  But  the  most  valuable  annotation  is 
found  at  the  top  of  the  sheet  :  Beatus  Franciscus  duobus  annis  ante 
mortem  suam  fecit  quadragesimam  in  loco  Alvernœ  ad  Ttonorem  Beatœ 
Yirginis  Mariœ  matris  Dei  et  beati  Michael  archangeli  a  festo  assump- 


358 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


As  to  the  two  famous  hymns  Amor  de  caritade1  and  In 
foco  V  amor  mi  mise,2  they  cannot  be  attributed  to  St. 
Francis,  at  least  in  their  present  form. 

It  belongs  to  M.  Monaci  and  his  numerous  and  learned 
emulators  to  throw  light  upon  these  delicate  questions 
by  publishing  in  a  scientific  manner  the  earliest  monu- 
ments of  Italian  poetry. 

I  have  already  spoken  of  several  tracts  of  which  assured 
traces  have  been  found,  though  they  themselves  are  lost. 
They  are  much  more  numerous  than  would  at  first  be  sup- 
posed. In  the  missionary  zeal  of  the  early  years  the 
Brothers  would  not  concern  themselves  with  collecting 
documents.  We  do  not  write  our  memoirs  in  the  fulness 
of  our  youth. 

We  must  also  remember  that  Portiuncula  had  neither 
archives  nor  library.  It  was  a  chapel  ten  paces  long, 
with  a  few  huts  gathered  around  it.  The  Order  was  ten 
years  old  before  it  had  seen  any  other  than  a  single 
book  :  a  New  Testament.  The  Brothers  did  not  even 
keep  this  one.  Francis,  having  nothing  else,  gave  it  to 
a  poor  woman  who  asked  for  alms,  and  when  Pietro  di 
Catania,  his  vicar,  expressed  his  surprise  at  this  prodigal- 
ity :  "  Has  she  not  given  her  two  sons  to  the  Order  ?  "  re- 
plied the  master 3  quickly. 

tionis  sanciœ  Mariœ  Virginis  usque  adfestum  sancti  Michael  septembris 
et  facta  est  super  eum  manus  Domini  per  vision  em  et  allucotionem  sera- 
phym  et  impressionem  stigmatum  in  corpore  suo.  Fecit  has  laudes  ex  alio 
latere  catule  scriptas  et  manu,  sua  scripsit  gr alias  agens  Domino  de  bene- 
flcio  sibi  collate    Vide  2  Cel.,  2,  18. 

1  Wadding  gives  the  text  according  to  St.  Bernardino  da  Siena.  Opera, 
t.  iv. ,  sermo  16,  extraord.  et  sermoferiœ  sextœ  Parasceves.  Amoni  :  Le- 
genda  trium  sociorum,  p.  166. 

2  Wadding  has  drawn  the  text  from  St.  Bernardino,  loc.  cit.,  sermo  iv., 
extraord.  It  was  also  reproduced  by  Amoni,  loc.  cit.,  p.  165.  Two  very 
curious  versions  may  be  found  in  the  Miscellanea,  1888,  pp.  96  and  190. 

3  2  Cel.,  3,  35.  This  took  place  under  the  vicariat  of  Pietro  di  Ca- 
tania ;  consequently  between  September  29,  1220,  and  March  10,  1221. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


359 


II 

BIOGRAPHIES  PROPERLY  SO  CALLED 

L  Preliminary  Note 

To  form  a  somewhat  exact  notion  of  the  documents 
which  are  to  occupy  us,  we  must  put  them  back  into  the 
midst  of  the  circumstances  in  which  they  appeared, 
study  them  in  detail,  and  determine  the  special  yalue  of 
each  one. 

Here,  more  than  anywhere  else,  we  must  beware  of 
facile  theories  and  hasty  generalizations.  The  same  life 
described  by  two  equally  truthful  contemporaries  may 
take  on  a  very  different  coloring.  This  is  especially  the 
case  if  the  man  concerned  has  aroused  enthusiasm  and 
wrath,  if  his  inmost  thought,  his  works,  have  been  the 
subject  of  discussion,  if  the  very  men  who  were  commis- 
sioned to  realize  his  ideals  and  carry  on  his  work  are 
divided,  and  at  odds  with  one  another. 

This  was  the  case  with  St.  Francis.  In  his  lifetime 
and  before  his  own  eyes  divergences  manifested  them- 
selves, at  first  secretly,  then  in  the  light  of  day. 

In  a  rapture  of  love  he  went  from  cottage  to  cottage, 
from  castle  to  castle,  preaching  absolute  poverty  ;  but 
that  buoyant  enthusiasm,  that  unbounded  idealism,  could 
not  last  long.  The  Order  of  the  Brothers  Minor  in 
process  of  growth  was  open  not  only  to  a  few  choice 
spirits  aflame  with  mystic  fervor,  but  to  all  men  who 
aspired  after  a  religious  reformation  ;  pious  laymen, 
monks  undeceived  as  to  the  virtues  of  the  ancient  Orders, 
priests  shocked  at  the  vices  of  the  secular  clergy,  all 
brought  with  them — unintentionally  no  doubt  and  even 
unconsciously — too  much  of  their  old  man  not  by  degrees 
to  transform  the  institution. 


360 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Francis  perceived  the  peril  several  years  before  his 
death,  and  made  every  effort  to  avert  it.  Even  in  his 
dying  hour  we  see  him  summoning  all  his  powers  to 
declare  his  Will  once  again,  and  as  clearly  as  possible, 
and  to  conjure  his  Brothers  never  to  touch  the  Rule, 
even  under  pretext  of  commenting  upon  or  explaining  it. 
Alas  !  four  years  had  not  rolled  away  when  Gregory  IX., 
at  the  prayer  of  the  Brothers  themselves,  became  the 
first  one  of  a  long  series  of  pontiffs  who  have  explained 
the  Rule.1 

Poverty,  as  Francis  understood  it,  soon  became  only  a 
memory.  The  unexampled  success  of  the  Order  brought 
to  it  not  merely  new  recruits,  but  money.  How  refuse  it 
when  there  were  so  many  works  to  found?  Many  of 
the  friars  discovered  that  their  master  had  exaggerated 
many  things,  that  shades  of  meaning  were  to  be  observed 
in  the  Rule,  for  example,  between  counsels  and  precepts. 
The  door  once  opened  to  interpretations,  it  became 
impossible  to  close  it.  The  Franciscan  family  began 
to  be  divided  into  opposing  parties  often  difficult  to 
distinguish. 

At  first  there  were  a  few  restless,  undisciplined  men 
who  grouped  themselves  around  the  older  friars.  The 
latter,  in  their  character  of  first  companions  of  the  Saint, 
found  a  moral  authority  often  greater  than  the  official 
authority  of  the  ministers  and  guardians.  The  people 
turned  to  them  by  instinct  as  to  the  true  continuers  of 
St.  Francis's  work.    They  were  not  far  from  right. 

They  had  the  vigor,  the  vehemence  of  absolute  convic- 
tions ;  they  could  not  have  temporized  had  they  desired 
to  do  so.  When  they  emerged  from  their  hermitages 
in  the  Apennines,  their  eyes  shining  with  the  fever  of 
their  ideas,  absorbed  in  contemplation,  their  whole  being 
spoke  of  the  radiant  visions  they  enjoyed  ;  and  the 
1  Bu  1  Quo  elongati  of  September  28,  1230.    See  p.  336. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


361 


amazed  and  subdued  multitude  would  kneel  to  kiss  the 
prints  of  their  feet  with  hearts  mysteriously  stirred. 

A  larger  group  was  that  of  those  Brothers  who  con- 
demned these  methods  without  being  any  the  less  saints. 
Bom  far  away  from  Umbria,  in  countries  where  nature 
seems  to  be  a  step-mother,  where  adoration,  far  from  be- 
ing the  instinctiYe  act  of  a  happy  soul  soaring  upward 
to  bless  the  heavenly  Father,  is,  on  the  contrary,  the  de- 
spairing cry  of  an  atom  lost  in  immensity,  they  desired 
above  all  things  a  religious  reformation,  rational  and 
profound.  They  dreamed  of  bringing  the  Church  back 
to  the  purity  of  the  ancient  days,  and  saw  in  the  tow  of 
poverty,  understood  in  its  largest  sense,  the  best  means 
of  struggling  against  the  vices  of  the  clergy  ;  but  they 
forgot  the  freshness,  the  Italian  gayety,  the  sunny  poetry 
that  there  had  been  in  Francis's  mission. 

Full  of  admiration  for  him,  they  yet  desired  to  enlarge 
the  foundations  of  his  work,  and  for  that  they  would 
neglect  no  means  of  influence,  certainly  not  learning. 

This  tendency  was  the  dominant  one  in  France,  Ger- 
many, and  England.  In  Italy  it  was  represented  by  a 
very  powerful  party,  powerful  if  not  in  the  number,  at 
least  in  the  authority,  of  its  representatives.  This  was 
the  party  favored  by  the  papacy.  It  was  the  party  of 
Brother  Elias  and  all  the  ministers-general  of  the  Order 
in  the  thirteenth  century,  if  we  except  Giovanni  cli  Parma 
(1247-1257)  and  Baimondo  Gaufridi  (1289-1295). 

In  Italy  a  third  group,  the  liberals,  was  much  more 
numerous  ;  men  of  mediocrity  to  whom  monastic  life 
appeared  the  most  facile  existence,  vagrant  monks  happy 
to  secure  an  aftermath  of  success  by  displaying  the  new 
Rule,  formed  in  this  country  the  greater  part  of  the 
Franciscan  family. 

\Ye  can  understand  without  difficulty  that  documents 
emanating  from  such  different  quarters  must  bear  the 


362 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


impress  of  their  origin.  The  men  who  are  to  bring  us 
their  testimony  are  combatants  in  the  struggle  over  the 
question  of  poverty,  a  struggle  which  for  two  centuries 
agitated  the  Church,  aroused  all  consciences,  and  which 
had  its  monsters  and  its  martyrs. 

To  determine  the  value  of  these  witnesses  we  must  first 
of  all  discover  their  origin.  It  is  evident  that  the  narra- 
tives of  the  no-compromise  party  of  the  right  or  the  left 
can  have  but  slender  value  where  controverted  points  are 
concerned  ;  whence  the  conclusion  that  the  authority  of  a 
narrator  may  vary  from  page  to  page,  or  even  from  line 
to  line. 

These  considerations,  so  simple  that  one  almost  needs 
to  beg  pardon  for  uttering  them,  have  not,  however, 
guided  those  who  have  studied  St.  Francis's  life.  The 
most  learned,  like  Wadding  and  Papini,  have  brought 
together  the  narratives  of  different  biographers,  here  and 
there  pruning  those  that  are  too  contradictory  ;  but  they 
have  done  this  at  random,  with  neither  rule  nor  method, 
guided  by  the  impression  of  the  moment. 

The  long  work  of  the  Bollandist  Suysken  is  vitiated  by 
an  analogous  fault  ;  fixed  in  his  principle  that  the  oldest 
documents  are  always  the  best,1  he  takes  his  stand  upon 
the  first  Life  of  Thomas  of  Celano  as  upon  an  impreg- 
nable rock,  and  judges  all  other  legends  by  that  one.2 

When  we  connect  the  documents  with  the  disturbed 
circumstances  which  brought  them  into  being,  some  of 
them  lose  a  little  of  their  authority,  others  which  have 
been  neglected,  as  being  in  contradiction  with  witnesses 
who  have  become  so  to  say  official,  suddenly  recover 

1  It  is  needless  to  say  that  I  have  no  desire  to  put  myself  in  opposition 
to  that  principle,  one  of  the  most  fruitful  of  criticism,  but  still  it  should 
not  he  employed  alone. 

2  The  learned  works  that  have  appeared  in  Germany  in  late  years 
err  in  the  same  way.    They  will  be  found  cited  in  the  body  of  the  work. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


363 


credit,  and  in  fact  all  gain  a  new  life  which,  doubles  their 
interest. 

This  altered  point  of  view  in  the  valuation  of  the 
sources,  this  criticism  which  I  am  inclined  to  call  recip- 
rocal and  organic,  brings  about  profound  alterations  in 
the  biography  of  St.  Francis.  By  a  phenomenon  which 
may  appear  strange  we  end  by  sketching  a  portrait  of  him 
much  more  like  that  which  exists  in  the  popular  imagina- 
tion of  Italy  than  that  made  by  the  learned  historians 
above  mentioned. 

When  Francis  died  (1226)  the  parties  which  divided 
the  Order  had  already  entered  into  conflict.  That  event 
precipitated  the  crisis  :  Brother  Elias  had  been  for  five 
years  exercising  the  functions  of  minister-general  with 
the  title  of  vicar.  He  displayed  an  amazing  activity.  In- 
trenched in  the  confidence  of  Gregory  IX.  he  removed 
the  Zelanti  from  their  charges,  strengthened  the  discipline 
even  in  the  most  remote  provinces,  obtained  numerous 
privileges  from  the  curia,  and  with  incredible  rapidity 
prepared  for  the  building  of  the  double  basilica,  destined 
for  the  repose  of  the  ashes  of  the  Stigmatized  Saint  ;  but 
notwithstanding  all  his  efforts,  the  chapter  of  1227  set 
him  aside  and  chose  Giovanni  Parenti  as  minister-gen- 
eral. 

Furious  at  this  check,  he  immediately  set  all  influences 
to  work  to  be  chosen  at  the  following  chapter.  It  even 
seems  as  if  he  paid  no  attention  to  the  nomination  of 
Giovanni  Parenti,  and  continued  to  go  on  as  if  he  had 
been  minister.1 

Very  popular  among  the  Assisans,  who  were  dazzled 
by  the  magnificence  of  the  monument  which  was  springing 
up  on  the  Hill  of  Hell,  now  become  the  Hill  of  Paradise, 

1  EccL,  13.  Voluerunt  ipsi,  quos  ad  capitulam  concesserat  venire  /ra- 
ter Relias  ;  nam  omnes  concessit,  etc.  An.  fr.,  t.  i.,  p.  241.  Cf.  Mon. 
Germ.  hist.  Script,  t.,  28,  p.  564. 


364 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


sure  of  being  supported  by  a  considerable  party  in  the 
Order  and  by  the  pope,  he  pushed  forward  the  work  on 
the  basilica  with  a  decision  and  success  perhaps  unique 
in  the  annals  of  architecture.1 

All  this  could  not  be  done  without  arousing  the  indig- 
nation of  the  Zealots  of  poverty.  When  they  saw  a  mon- 
umental poor-box,  designed  to  receive  the  alms  of  the 
faithful,  upon  the  tomb  of  him  who  had  forbidden  his 
disciples  the  mere  contact  of  money,  it  seemed  to  them 
that  Francis's  prophecy  of  the  apostasy  of  a  part  of  the 
Order  was  about  to  be  fulfilled.  A  tempest  of  revolt 
swept  over  the  hermitages  of  Umbria.  Must  they  not,  by 
any  means,  prevent  this  abomination  in  the  holy  place  ? 

They  knew  that  Elias  was  terrible  in  his  severities,  but 
his  opponents  felt  in  themselves  courage  to  go  to  the  last 
extremity,  and  suffer  everything  to  defend  their  convic- 
tions. One  day  the  poor-box  was  found  shattered  by 
Brother  Leo  and  his  friends.2 

To  this  degree  of  intensity  the  struggle  had  arrived. 
At  this  crisis  the  first  legend  appeared. 

1  The  death  of  Francis  occurred  on  October  3, 1226.  On  March  29, 
1228,  Elias  acquired  the  site  for  the  basilica.  The  Instrumentum  do- 
nationis  is  still  preserved  at  Assisi  :  Piece  No.  1  of  the  twelfth  pack- 
age of  Instrumenta  diversa  pertinentia  ad  Sacrum  Conventum.  It  has 
been  published  by  Thode  :  Franz  ton  Assisi,  p.  859. 

On  July  17th  of  the  same  year,  the  day  after  the  canonization,  Greg- 
ory IX.  solemnly  laid  the  first  stone.  Less  than  two  years  afterward 
the  Lower  church  was  finished,  and  on  May  25,  1230,  the  body  of  the 
Saint  was  carried  there.  In  1236  the  Upper  church  was  finished.  It 
was  already  decorated  with  a  first  series  of  frescos,  and  Giunta  Pisano 
painted  Elias,  life  size,  kneeling  at  the  foot  of  the  crucifix  over  the  en- 
trance to  the  choir.  In  1239  everything  was  finished,  and  the  campa- 
nile received  the  famous  bells  whose  chimes  still  delight  all  the  valley 
of  Umbria.  Thus,  then,  three  months  and  a  half  before  the  canoniza- 
tion, Elias  received  the  site  of  the  basilica.  The  act  of  canonization 
commenced  at  the  end  of  May,  1228  (1  Cel.,  123  and  124.  Cf.  Potthast, 
8194ff). 

2  Spec,  167a.    Cf.  An.  fr.,  ii.,  p.  45  and  note. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


365 


II.  First  Life  by  Thomas  of  Celano  1 

Thomas  of  Celano,  in  writing  this  legend,  to  which  he 
was  later  to  return  for  its  completion,  obeyed  an  express 
order  of  Pope  Gregory  IX.2 

Why  did  he  not  apply  to  one  of  the  Brothers  of  the 
Saint's  immediate  circle?     The  talent  of  this  author 

1  The  Bollandists  followed  the  text  (A.  SS.,  Octobris,  t.  ii. .  pp.  683-723) 
of  a  manuscript  of  the  Cistercian  abbey  of  Longpont  in  the  diocese  of 
Soissons.  It  has  since  been  published  in  Rome  in  1806.  without  the 
name  of  the  editor  (in  reality  by  the  Convent  Father  Rinaldi),  under  the 
title  :  Seraphici  mri  S.  Francisez  Asszsiatzs  rztœ  dual  auctore  B.  Thoma 
de  Celano,  according  to  a  manuscript  (of  Fallerone,  in  the  March  of 
Ancona)  which  was  stolen  in  the  viginity  of  Terni  by  brigands  from  the 
Brother  charged  with  bringing  it  back.  The  second  text  was  repro- 
duced at  Rome  in  1880  by  Canon  Amoni  :  Vita  prima  S.  Francisez,  auc- 
tore B.  Thoma  de  Celano.  Roma,  tipografia  délia  pace,  1880,  in  8vo,  42  pp. 
The  citations  will  follow  the  divisions  made  by  the  Bollandists,  but  in 
many  important  passages  the  Rinaldi-Amoni  text  gives  better  readings 
than  that  of  the  Bollandists.  The  latter  has  been  here  and  there  re- 
touched and  filled  out.  See,  for  example,  1  Cel.,  24  and  31.  As  for 
the  manuscripts,  Father  Denifle  thinks  that  the  oldest  of  those  which 
are  known  is  that  at  Barcelona:  Archzm  de  la  corona  de  Aragon, 
Ripoll,  n.  41  (Archiv.,  t.  L,  p.  148).  There  is  one  in  the  National  Li- 
brary of  Paris,  Latin  alcove,  No.  3817,  which  includes  a  curious  note  : 
u  Apud  Perusium  feUx  domnus  papa  Gregorius  nonus  gloriosî  secundo 
pontifiais  suz  anno,  quinto  kal.  martii  {February  25,  1229)  legendam  lianc 
recepit,  confirmait  et  censiiit  fore  tenendam."  Another  manuscript, 
which  merits  attention,  both  because  of  its  age,  thirteenth  century,  and 
because  of  the  correction  in  the  text,  and  which  appears  to  have  escaped 
the  researches  of  the  students  of  the  Franciscans,  is  the  one  owned  by 
the  École  de  Médicine  at  Montpellier,  No.  30,  in  vellum  folio  :  Passion- 
ale  vêtus  eccksiœ  8.  Benigni  divionensis.  The  story  of  Celano  occupies 
in  it  the  fos.  257a-271b.  The  text  ends  abruptly  in  the  middle  of 
paragraph  112  with  supiviis  ostendebant.  Except  for  this  final  break  it 
is  complete.  Cf.  Archives  Pertz,  t.  vii.,  pp.  195  and  196.  Yide  General 
catalogue  of  the  manuscripts  of  the  public  libraries  of  the  departments, 
t.  i.,  p.  295. 

2  Vide  1  Cel.,  Prol.  Jubente  domino  et  glorioso  Papa  Gregorio.  Celano 
wrote  it  after  the  canonization  (July  16,  1228)  and  before  February  25, 
1229,  for  the  date  indicated  above  raises  no  difficulty. 


366 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


might  explain  this  choice,  but  besides  the  fact  that  liter- 
ary considerations  would  in  this  case  hold  a  secondary 
place,  Brother  Leo  and  several  others  proved  later  that 
they  also  knew  how  to  handle  the  pen. 

If  Celano  was  put  in  trust  with  the  official  biography, 
it  is  because,  being  equally  in  sympathy  with  Gregory 
IX.  and  Brother  Elias,  his  absence  had  kept  him  out  of 
the  conflicts  which  had  marked  the  last  years  of  Fran- 
cis's life.  Of  an  irenic  temper,  he  belonged  to  the  cate- 
gory of  those  souls  who  easily  persuade  themselves  that 
obedience  is  the  first  of  virtues,  that  every  superior  is 
a  saint  ;  and  if  unluckily  he  is  not,  that  we  should  none 
the  less  act  as  though  he  were. 

We  have  some  knowledge  of  his  life.  A  native  of  Cela- 
no in  the  Abruzzi,  he  discreetly  observes  that  his  family 
was  noble,  even  adding,  with  a  touch  of  artless  simplicity, 
that  the  master  had  a  peculiar  regard  for  noble  and  edu- 
cated Brothers.  He  entered  the  Order  about  1215,1  on 
the  return  of  Francis  from  Spain. 

At  the  chapter  of  1221  Caesar  of  Speyer,  charged  with 
the  mission  to  Germany,  took  him  among  those  who 
were  to  accompany  him.2  In  1223  he  was  named  cus- 
tode of  Mayence,  Worms,  Cologne,  and  Speyer.  In 
April  of  the  same  year,  when  Caesar  returned  to  Italy, 
devoured  with  the  longing  to  see  St.  Francis  again,  he 
commissioned  Celano  to  execute  his  functions  until  the 
arrival  of  the  new  provincial.3 

We  have  no  information  as  to  where  he  was  after  the 
chapter-general  held  at  Speyer  September  8,  1223.  He 

1 1  Cel.,  56.  Perhaps  he  was  the  son  of  that  Thomas,  Count  of  Celano, 
to  whom  Ryccardi  di  S.  Germano  so  often  made  allusion  in  his  chroni- 
cle :  1219-1223.  See  also  two  letters  of  Frederick  II.  to  Honorius  III., 
on  April  24  and  25,  1223,  published  in  Winckelmann  :  Acta  imperii 
inedita,  t.  i.,  p.  232. 

yGiord.,  19. 

'Giord.,  30  and  31. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


367 


must  have  been  in  Assisi  in  1228,  for  his  account  of  the 
canonization  is  that  of  an  eye-witness.  He  was  there 
again  in  1230,  and  doubtless  clothed  with  an  important 
office,  since  he  could  commit  to  Brother  Giordano  the 
relics  of  St.  Francis.1 

Written  in  a  pleasing  style,  very  often  poetic,  his  work 
breathes  an  affecting  admiration  for  his  hero  ;  his  testi- 
mony at  once  makes  itself  felt  as  sincere  and  true  :  when 
he  is  partial  it  is  without  intention  and  even  without  his 
knowledge.  The  weak  point  in  this  biography  is  the 
picture  which  it  outlines  of  the  relations  between  Brother 
Elias  and  the  founder  of  the  Order  :  from  the  chapters 
devoted  to  the  last  two  years  we  receive  a  very  clear 
impression  that  Elias  was  named  by  Francis  to  succeed 
him.2 

Now  if  we  reflect  that  at  the  time  when  Celano  wrote, 
Giovanni  Parenti  was  .minister-general,  we  at  once  per- 
ceive the  bearing  of  these  indications.3  Every  opportu- 
nity is  seized  to  give  a  preponderating  importance  to 
Elias.4    It  is  a  true  manifesto  in  his  favor. 

Have  we  reason  to  blame  Celano  ?    I  think  not.  "We 

1  Giord. ,  59.  Cf.  Glassberger,  aim.  1230.  Tlie  question  whether  lie 
is  the  author  of  the  Dies  irœ  would  be  out  of  place  here. 

2  This  is  so  true  that  the  majority  of  historians  have  been  brought  to 
believe  in  two  generalates  of  Elias,  one  in  1227-1230.  the  other  in  1236- 
1239.  The  letter  Non  ex  odio  of  Frederick  II.  (1239)  gives  the  same 
idea  :  Rêvera  papa  ùte  quemdam  religiosum  et  timoratum  fratrem  Eel- 
yam,  ministrum  ordinis  fratrum  minorurn  ab  ipso  beato  Francisco  patre 
ordinis  migrationis  sum  tempore  constitutum  .  .  .  in  odium  nostrum 
.  .  .  deposuit.  Huillard-Breholles  :  Hist,  dipl  Fred.  IL,  t.  v.,  p. 
346. 

3  He  is  named  only  once,  1  Cel. ,  48. 

41  Cel.,  95,  98,  105,  109.  The  account  of  the  Benediction  is  espe- 
cially significant.  Super  quern  inquit  (Franciscits)  tenes  dexteram  meam  ? 
Super  fratrem  Heliam,  inquiunt.  Et  ego  sic  volo,  sit.  ...  1  Cel., 
108.  Those  last  words  obviously  disclose  the  intention.  Cf.  2  Cel., 
3,  139. 


368 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FKANCIS 


must  simply  remember  that  his  work  might  with  justice 
be  called  the  legend  of  Gregory  IX.  Elias  was  the  pope's 
man,  and  the  biography  is  worked  up  from  the  informa- 
tion he  gave.  He  could  not  avoid  dwelling  with  pecul- 
iar satisfaction  upon  his  intimacy  with  Francis. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  cannot  expect  to  find  here  such 
details  as  might  have  sustained  the  pretension  of  the  ad- 
versaries of  Elias,  those  unruly  Zealots  who  were  already 
proudly  adorning  themselves  with  the  title  of  Companions 
of  the  Saint  and  endeavoring  to  constitute  a  sort  of  spirit- 
ual aristocracy  in  the  Order.  Among  them  were  four 
who  during  the  last  two  years  had  not,  so  to  say,  quitted 
Francis.  We  can  imagine  how  difficult  it  was  not  to 
speak  of  them.  Celano  carefully  omits  to  mention  their 
names  under  pretext  of  sparing  their  modesty  ; 1  but  by 
the  praises  lavished  upon  Gregory  IX.,  Brother  Elias,2 
St.  Clara,3  and  even  upon  very  secondary  persons,  he 
shows  that  his  discretion  is  far  from  being  always  so 
alert. 

All  this  is  very  serious,  but  we  must  not  exaggerate  it. 
There  is  an  evident  partiality,  but  it  would  be  unjust  to 
go  farther  and  believe,  as  men  did  later,  that  the  last  part 
of  Francis's  life  was  an  active  struggle  against  the  very 
person  of  Elias.  A  struggle  there  surely  was,  but  it  was 
against  tendencies  whose  spring  Francis  did  not  perceive. 
He  carried  with  him  to  his  tomb  his  delusion  as  to  his 
co-laborer. 

For  that  matter  this  defect  is  after  all  secondary  so  far 
as  the  physiognomy  of  Francis  himself  is  concerned.  In 
Culano'sLife,  as  in  the  Three  Companions  or  the  Fioretti, 

1 1  Cel.,  102  ;  cf.  91  and  109.  Brother  Leo  is  not  even  named  in  the 
whole  work.    Nor  Angelo,  Illuminato,  Masseo  either  ! 

2 1  Cel.,  Prol.,  73-75  ;  99-101  ;  121-126.  Next  to  St.  Francis,  Greg- 
ory IX.  and  Brother  Elias  (1  Cel.,  69  ;  95;  98;  105  ;  108  ;  109)  are  in  the 
foreground. 

31  Cel.,  18  and  19  ;  110  and  117. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


369 


he  appears  with  a  smile  for  all  joys,  and  floods  of  tears 
for  all  woes  ;  we  feel  everywhere  the  restrained  emotion 
of  the  writer  ;  his  heart  is  subjected  by  the  moral  beauty 
of  his  hero. 

III.  Survey  of  the  History  of  the  Order  from  1230-1244 

When  Thomas  of  Celano  closed  his  legend  he  perceived 
more  than  anyone  the  deficiencies  of  his  work,  for  which 
he  had  been  able  to  collect  but  insufficient  material. 

Elias  and  the  other  Assisan  brothers  had  told  him  of 
Francis's  youth  and  his  activity  in  Umbria  ;  but  be- 
sides that  he  would  have  preferred,  whether  from  pru- 
dence or  from  love  of  peace,  to  keep  silence  upon  certain 
events,1  there  were  long  periods  upon  which  he  had  not 
received  a  single  item  of  information.2 

He  therefore  seems  to  indicate  his  intention  of  re- 
suming and  completing  his  work.3 

This  is  not  the  place  to  write  the  history  of  the  Order, 
but  a  few  facts  are  necessary  to  put  the  documents  into 
their  proper  surroundings. 

Elected  minister-general  in  1232,  Brother  Elias  took 
advantage  of  the  fact  to  labor  with  indomitable  energy 
toward  the  realization  of  his  own  ideas.  In  all  the  prov- 
inces new  collections  were  organized  for  the  Basilica  of 
Assisi,  the  work  upon  which  was  pushed  with  an  activity 
which  however  injured  neither  the  strength  of  the  edifice 

1  Those  which  occurred  during  the  absence  of  Francis  (1220-1221). 
He  overlooks  the  difficulties  met  at  Rome  in  seeking  the  approbation  of 
the  first  Rule  ;  he  mentions  those  connected  neither  with  the  second 
nor  the  third,  and  makes  no  allusion  to  the  circumstances  which  pro- 
voked them.  He  recognized  them,  however,  having  lived  in  intimacy 
with  Cassar  of  Spever,  the  collaborator  of  the  second  (1221). 

-  For  example,  Francis's  journey  to  Spain. 

3lCel.,l,  83.    Et  sola  quœ  necessaria  magis  occurrunt  ad  prœsens 
intendimus  adnotare.    It  is  to  be  observed  that  in  the  prologue  he 
speaks  in  the  singular. 
24 


370 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


nor  the  beauty  of  its  details,  which  are  as  finished  and 
perfect  as  those  of  any  monument  in  Europe. 

We  may  conceive  of  the  enormous  sums  which  it  had 
been  necessary  to  raise  in  order  to  complete  such  an 
enterprise  in  so  short  a  time.  More  than  that,  Brother 
Elias  exacted  absolute  obedience  from  all  his  subor- 
dinates; naming  and  removing  the  provincial  ministers 
according  to  his  personal  views,  he  neglected  to  con- 
voke the  chapter-general,  and  sent  his  emissaries  under 
the  name  of  visitors  into  all  the  provinces  to  secure  the 
execution  of  his  orders. 

The  moderate  party  in  Germany,  France,  and  Eng- 
land very  soon  found  his  yoke  insupportable.  It  was 
hard  for  them  to  be  directed  by  an  Italian  minister 
resident  at  Assisi,  a  small  town  quite  aside  from  the 
highways  of  civilization,  entirely  a  stranger  to  the 
scientific  movement  concentred  in  the  universities  of 
Oxford,  Paris,  and  Bologna. 

In  the  indignation  of  the  Zelauti  against  Elias  and 
his  contempt  for  the  Rule,  they  found  a  decisive  sup- 
port. Very  soon  the  minister  had  for  his  defence  noth- 
ing but  his  own  energy,  and  the  favor  of  the  pope  and  of 
the  few  Italian  moderates.  By  a  great  increase  of  vigil- 
ance and  severity  he  repressed  several  attempts  at  revolt. 

His  adversaries,  however,  succeeded  in  establishing 
secret  intelligence  at  the  court  of  Borne  ;  even  the  pope's 
confessor  was  gained  ;  yet  in  spite  of  all  these  circum- 
stances, the  success  of  the  conspiracy  was  still  uncertain 
when  the  chapter  of  1239  opened. 

Gregory  IX.,  still  favorable  to  Elias,1  presided.  Fear 
gave  sudden  courage  to  the  conspirators  ;  they  threw 
their  accusations  in  their  enemy's  face. 

1  In  1238  lie  had  sent  Elias  to  Cremona,  charged  with  a  mission  for 
Frederick  II.  Salembeni,  ann.  1229.  See  also  the  reception  given  by 
Gregory  IX.  to  the  appellants  against  the  General.    Giord.  .  63. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


371 


Thomas  of  Eccleston  gives  a  highly  colored  narrative 
of  what  took  place.  Elias  was  proud,  violent,  even 
threatening.  There  were  cries  and  vociferations  from 
both  sides  ;  they  were  about  to  come  to  blows  when  a 
few  words  from  the  rJ0Pe  restored  silence.  He  had 
made  up  his  mind  to  abandon  his  protégé.  He  asked 
for  his  resignation.    Elias  indignantly  refused. 

Gregory  IX.  then  explained  that  in  keeping  him  in 
charge  he  had  thought  himself  acting  in  accordance 
with  the  wishes  of  the  majority  ;  that  he  had  no  in- 
tention to  dominate  the  Order,  and,  since  the  Brothers 
no  longer  desired  Elias,  he  declared  him  deposed  from 
the  generalate. 

The  joy  of  the  victors,  says  Eccleston,  was  immense 
and  ineffable.  They  chose  Alberto  di  Pisa,  provincial  of 
England,  to  succeed  him,  and  from  that  time  bent  all 
their  efforts  to  represent  Elias  as  a  creature  of  Frederick 
II.1  The  former  minister  wrote  indeed  to  the  pope  to 
explain  his  conduct,  but  the  letter  did  not  reach  its  des- 
tination. It  must  have  reached  the  hands  of  his  succes- 
sor, and  not  been  sent  forward  ;  when  Alberto  of  Pisa 
died  it  was  found  in  his  tunic.' 

All  the  fury  of  the  aged  pontiff  was  unchained  against 
Elias.  One  must  read  the  documents  to  see  to  what  a 
height  his  anger  could  rise.  The  friar  retorted  with  a 
virulence  which  though  less  wordy  was  far  more  over- 
powering.3 

1  See  the  letter  of  Frederick  II.  to  Elias  upon  the  translation  of  St. 
Elizabeth,  May,  1236.  Winkelmann,  Acta  i.,  p.  299.  Cf.  Huillard- 
Bréholles,  Hist.  dipl.  Intr.  p.  cc. 

2  The  authorities  for  this  story  are  :  Catahgus  ministrorum  of  Bernard 
of  Besse,  ap  Ehrle.  Zdtechrift,  vol.  7  (1883),  p.  339  ;  Speculum,  207b, 
and  especially  167a-170a  ;  Eccl.,  13;  Giord.,  61-63;  Speculum,  Moriri., 
tract  i.,  fo.  60b. 

3  Asserabat  eiiam  ipse  prœdictus  f  rater  Helyas  .  .  .  papain  .  .  . 
fraudem  facer e  de  pecunia  collecta  ad  succursum  Terrœ  Saiictœ,  scripta 


312 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


These  events  gained  an  indescribable  notoriety 1  all 
over  Europe  and  threw  the  Order  into  profound  dis- 
turbance. Many  of  the  part  sans  of  Elias  became  con- 
vinced that  they  had  been  deceived  by  an  impostor,  and 
they  drew  toward  the  group  of  Zealots,  who  never  ceased 
to  demand  the  observance  pure  and  simple  of  the  Eule 
and  the  Will. 

Thomas  of  Celano  was  of  this  number.2  With  pro- 
found sadness  he  saw  the  innumerable  influences  that 
were  secretly  undermining  the  Franciscan  institute  and 
menacing  it  with  ruin.  Already  a  refrain  was  going  the 
rounds  of  the  convents,  singing  the  victory  of  Paris  over 
Assisi,  that  is,  of  learning  over  poverty. 

The  Zealots  gained  new  courage.  Unaccustomed  to 
the  subtleties  of  ecclesiastical  politics,  they  did  not  per- 
ceive that  the  pope,  while  condemning  Brother  Elias,  had 
in  nowise  modified  the  general  course  which  he  had 
marked  out  for  the  Order.  The  ministers-general,  Al- 
berto di  Pisa,  1239-1240,  Aymon  of  Faversham,  1240- 
1244,  Crescentius  de  Jesi,  1244-1247,  were  all,  with 
different  shades  of  meaning,  representatives  of  the  mod- 
erate part}\ 

Thomas  of  Celano's  first  legend  had  become  impos- 

etiam  ad  beneplacitum  suum  in  camera  sua  bullare  clam  et  sine  fratrum 
assensu  et  etiam  cedulas  vacuas,  sed  bullatas,  limitas  nunciis  suis  traderet 
.  .  .  et  cdia  multa  enormia  imposuit  domino  papœ,  ponens  ossuum  in 
celo.  Matth.  Paris,  Chron.  Maj.,  ann.  1239,  ap  Mon.  Ger.  hist.  Scrip)t., 
t.  28,  p.  182.  Cf.  Ficker,  n.  2685. 

1  Vide  Ryccardi  di  S.  Germano,  Chron.,  ap  Mon.  Ger.  hist.  Script.,  t. 
19,  p.  380,  ami.  1239.  The  letter  of  Frederick  complaining  of  the  depo- 
sition of  Elias  (1239)  :  Huillard-Bréholles,  Hist.  Dipl.,  v.,  pp.  346-349. 
Cf.  the  Bull,  AttendUe  ad  petram,  at  the  end  of  February,  1240,  ibid., 
pp.  777-779  ;  Potthast,  10849. 

2  He  was  without  doubt  one  of  the  bitterest  adversaries  of  the  emperor. 
His  village  had  been  burnt  in  1224,  by  order  of  Frederick  II.,  and  the 
inhabitants  transported  to  Sicily,  afterward  to  Malta.  Ryccardi  di  S. 
Germano,  loc.  cit.,  ann.  1223  and  1224. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


373 


sible.  The  prominence  there  given  to  Elias  was  almost 
a  scandal.  The  necessity  of  working  it  over  and  com- 
pleting it  became  clearly  evident  at  the  chapter  of 
Genoa  (1244). 

All  the  Brothers  who  had  anything  to  tell  about  Fran- 
cis's life  were  invited  to  commit  it  to  writing  and  send 
it  to  the  minister  Crescentius  de  Jesi.1  The  latter  im- 
mediately caused  a  tract  to  be  drawn  up  in  the  form  of  a 
dialogue,  commencing  with  the  words  :  "  Venerabilium 
gesta  Pàtrum."  So  soon  after  as  the  time  of  Bernard  de 
Besse,  only  fragments  of  this  were  left.2 

But  happily  several  of  the  works  which  saw  the  light 
in  consequence  of  the  decision  of  this  chapter  have  been 
preserved  to  us.  It  is  to  this  that  we  owe  the  Legend  of 
the  Three  Companions  and  the  Second  Life  by  Thomas 
of  Celano. 

IV.  Legend  of  the  Three  Companions  3 

The  life  of  St.  Francis  which  has  come  down  to  us 
under  the  name  of  the  Legend  of  the  Three  Companions 

1  Yide  tlie  prologue  to  2  Cel.  and  to  the  3  Soc.  Cf.  Glassberger,  arm. 
1244,  An.  fr.,  ii.,  p.  68.    Speculum,  Morin,  tract,  i  .  61b. 

2  Catalogus  ministrorum ,  edited  by  Ehrle  :  Zeitsclirift,  t.  7  (1883).  no. 
5.  Cf.  Spec,  208a.  Mark  of  Lisbon  speaks  of  it  a  little  more  at  length, 
bin;  lie  gives  the  honor  of  it  to  Giovanni  of  Parma,  ed.  Diola,  t.  ii. ,  p. 
38.  On  the  other  hand,  in  manuscript  691  of  the  archives  of  the  Sacro- 
Convento  at  Assisi  (a  catalogue  of  the  library  of  the  convent  made  in 
1381)  is  found,  fo.  45a,  a  note  of  that  work  :  "  Dyalogus  sanctorum  fra- 
trum  cum  postibus  cujus  principium  est  :  Yenerabilia  gesta  patrum  dig- 
nosque  memoria,  finis  xero  ;  non  indigne  fer  am  me  quoque  reperisse  con- 
sortem.    In  quo  libro  omnes  quaterni  sunt  xiii. 

3  The  text  was  published  for  the  first  time  by  the  Bollandists  (A.  SS., 
Octobris,  t.  ii.,  pp.  723-742),  after  a  manuscript  of  the  convent  of  the 
Brothers  Minor  of  Louvain.  It  is  from  this  edition  that  we  make  our 
citations.  The  editions  published  in  Italy  in  the  course  of  this  century, 
cannot  be  found,  except  the  last,  due  to  Abbé  Amoni.  This  one,  un- 
fortunately, is  too  faulty  to  serve  as  the  basis  of  -  a  scientific  study.  It 
appeared  in  Borne  in  1880  (8vo,  pp.  184)  under  the  title  :  Legenda  8. 


374 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


was  finished  on  August  11,  1246,  in  a  little  convent  in 
the  vale  of  Rieti,  which  appears  often  in  the  course  of 
this  history,  that  of  Greccio.  This  hermitage  had  been 
Francis's  favorite  abode,  especially  in  the  latter  part  of 
his  life.  He  had  thus  made  it  doubly  dear  to  the  hearts 
of  his  disciples.1  It  naturally  became,  from  the  earliest 
days  of  the  Order,  the  headquarters  of  the  Observants,2 
and  it  remains  through  all  the  centuries  one  of  the  purest 
centres  of  Franciscan  piety. 

The  authors  of  this  legend  were  men  worthy  to  tell  St. 
Francis's  story,  and  perhaps  the  most  capable  of  doing 
it  :  the  friars  Leo,  Angelo,  and  Rufino.  All  three  had 
lived  in  intimacy  with  him,  and  had  been  his  compan- 
ions through  the  most  important  years.  More  than  this, 
they  took  the  trouble  to  go  to  others  for  further  informa- 
tion, particularly  to  Filippo,  the  visitor  of  the  Clarisses, 
to  Illuminato  di  Rieti,  Masseo  di  Marignano,  John,  the 
confidant  of  Egidio,  and  Bernardo  di  Quintavalle. 

Such  names  as  these  promise  much,  and  happily  we 
are  not  disappointed  in  our  expectation.  As  it  has  come 
down  to  us,  this  document  is  the  only  one  worthy  from 
the  point  of  vieAv  of  history  to  be  placed  beside  the  First 
Life  by  Celano. 

The  names  of  the  authors  and  the  date  of  the  compo- 
sition indicate  before  examination  the  tendency  with 
which  it  is  likely  to  be  in  harmony.  It  is  the  first  mani- 
festo of  the  Brothers  who  remained  faithful  to  the  spirit 
and  letter  of  the  Rule.  This  is  confirmed  by  an 
attentive  reading  ;  it  is  at  least  as  much  a  panegyric  of 
Poverty  as  a  history  of  St.  Francis. 

Francisci  Assisiensis  qvœ  dicitur  Legenda  trium  sociorum  ex  cod.  membr. 
Biblioth.  Vatic,  num.  7339. 

1  2  Cel.,  2,  5  ;  3,  7  ;  1  Cel.,  60;  Bon.,  113  ;  1  Cel.,  84  ;  Bon.,  149  ; 
2  Cel.,  2,  14;  3,  10. 

'-'  Giovanni  di  Parma  retired  thither  in  1276  and  lived  there  almost  en- 
tirely until  his  death  (1288).    Tribul,  Archiv.,  vol.  ii.  (1886),  p.  286. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


375 


We  naturally  expect  to  see  the  Three  Companions 
relating  to  us  with  a  very  particular  delight  the  innumer- 
able features  of  the  legends  of  which  Greccio  was  the 
theatre  ;  we  turn  to  the  end  of  the  volume,  expecting  to 
find  the  story  of  the  last  years  of  which  they  were 
witnesses,  and  are  lost  in  surprise  to  find  nothing  of  the 
kind. 

While  the  first  half  of  the  work  describes  Francis's 
youth,  filling  out  here  and  there  Celano's  First  Life,  the 
second  1  is  devoted  to  a  picture  of  the  early  days  of  the 
Order,  a  picture  of  incomparable  freshness  and  intensity 
of  life;  but  strangely  enough,  after  ha  Ain  g  told  us  so 
much  at  length  of  Francis's  youth  and  then  of  the  first 
days  of  the  Order,  the  story  abruptly  leaps  over  from  the 
year  1220  to  the  death  and  the  canonization,  to  which 
after  all  only  a  few  pages  are  given.3 

This  is  too  extraordinary  to  be  the  result  of  chance. 
"What  has  happened  ?  It  is  evident  that  the  Legend  of 
the  Three  Companions  as  we  have  it  to-day  is  only  a 
fragment  of  the  original,  which  was  no  doubt  revised, 
corrected,  and  considerably  cut  down  by  the  authorities 
of  the  Order  before  they  would  permit  it  to  be  circulated.3 

*3  Soc,  25-67. 

2  3  Soc,  68-73. 

3  The  minister-general  Crescentins  of  Jesi  was  an  avowed  adversary  of 
the  Zealots  of  the  Bule.  The  contrary  idea  has  been  held  by  M.  Millier 
(Anfânge,  p.  180)  ;  bntthat  learned  scholar  is  not,  it  appears,  acquainted 
with  the  recitals  of  the  Chronicle  of  the  Tribulations,  which  leave  not 
a  single  doubt  as  to  the  persecutions  which  he  directed  against  the  Zeal- 
ots (Arc7iiv.,  t.  ii.,  pp.  257-260).  Anyone  who  attempts  to  dispute  the 
historical  worth  of  this  proof  will  find  a  confirmation  in  the  bulls  of 
August  5,  1244,  and  of  February  7,  1246  (Potthast,  11450  and  12007). 
It  was  Crescentius,  also,  who  obtained  a  bull  stating  that  the  Basilica  of 
Assisi  was  Caput  et  Mater  ordinis,  while  for  the  Zealots  this  rank  per- 
tained to  the  Portiuncula  (1  Cel.,  106  ;  3  Soc,  56  ;  Bon.,  23  ;  2  Cel.,  1, 
12  ;  Conform.,  217  ff).  (See  also  on  Crescentius,  Glassberger,  ann. 
1244,  An.  fir. ,  p.  69  ;  Sbaralea,  Bull.  fir. ,  i.,  p.  502  ff  ;  Conform.,  121b,  1.) 


376 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FKANCIS 


If  tlie  authors  had  been  interrupted  in  their  work,  and 
obliged  to  cut  short  the  end,  as  might  have  been  the 
case,  they  would  have  said  so  in  their  letter  of  envoy,  but 
there  are  still  other  arguments  in  favor  of  our  hypothe- 
sis. 

Brother  Leo  having  had  the  first  and  principal  part  in 
the  production  of  the  work  of  the  Three  Companions,  it  is 
often  called  Brother  Leo's  Legend  ;  now  Brother  Leo's 
Legend  is  several  times  cited  by  L^bertini  di  Casali, 
arraigned  before  the  court  of  Avignon  by  the  party  of  the 
Common  Observance.  Evidently  Ubertini  would  have 
taken  good  care  not  to  appeal  to  an  apocryphal  docu- 
ment ;  a  false  citation  would  have  been  enough  to  bring 
him  to  confusion,  and  his  enemies  would  not  have  failed 
to  make  the  most  of  his  imprudence.  We  have  at  hand 
all  the  documents  of  the  trial,1  attacks,  replies,  counter 
replies,  and  nowhere  do  we  see  the  Liberals  accuse  their 
adversary  of  falsehood.  For  that  matter,  the  latter  makes 
his  citations  with  a  precision  that  admits  of  no  cavil.2 

M.  Millier  has  been  led  into  error  through  a  blunder  of  Eccleston,  9 
(An.  fr.t  i.,  p.  235).  It  is  evident  that  the  chapter  of  Genoa  (1244)  could 
not  have  pronounced  against  the  Declaratio  Regulœ  published  Novem- 
ber 14,  1245.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  Crescentius  who  called  forth  this 
Declaratio,  against  which,  not  without  regret,  the  Zealots  found  a  ma- 
jority of  the  chapter  of  Metz  (1249)  presided  over  by  Giovanni  of  Par- 
ma, a  decided  enemy  of  any  Declaratio  (ArcJtiv.,  ii.,  p.  276).  This 
view  is  found  to  be  confirmed  by  a  passage  of  the  Speculum  Morin 
(Rouen,  1509),  f 3  62a  :  In  hoc  capitulo  (Narbonnœ)  fuit  ordination  quod 
declaratio  D.  Innocenta,  p.  iv.,  maneat  suspe?isa  sicut  in  Capitulo  ME- 
TENSI.  Etprœceptum  est  omnibus  ne  guis  utatur  ea  in  Us  in  quibus  ex- 
positioni  D.  Gregorii  IX.  contradicit. 

1  Published  with  all  necessary  scientific  apparatus  by  F.  Ehrle,  S.  J., 
in  his  studies  Zur  Vorgeschichte  des  Concils  von  Vienne.  Arcliiv.,  ii., 
pp.  353-416  ;  iii. ,  pp.  1-195. 

2  See,  for  example,  Archiv. ,  iii.,  p.  53  ff.  Cf.  76.  Adduxi  verba  et  facta 
b.  Francisci  sicut  est  aliquando  in  legenda  et  sicut  a  sociis  sancti patris 
audiii  el  in  cedulis  sanctœ  memoriœ  fratris  Leonis  legi  manu  sua  con- 
scriptis,  sicut  ab  ore  beati  Francisci  audivit.    Ib. .  p.  85. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


377 


He  appeals  to  writings  to  be  found  in  a  press  in  the  « 
convent  of  Assisi,  of  which  he  gives  sometimes  a  copy, 
sometimes  an  original.1  We  are  then  authorized  to  con- 
clude that  we  have  here  fragments  which  have  survived 
the  suppression  of  the  last  and  most  important  part  of 
the  Legend  of  the  Three  Companions. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  work  of  Francis's  dearest 
friends  should  have  been  so  seriously  mutilated.  It  was 
the  manifesto  of  a  party  that  Crescentius  was  hunting 
d.own  with  all  his  power. 

After  the  fleeting  reaction  of  the  generalate  of  Giovanni 
di  Parma  we  shall  see  a  man  of  worth  like  St.  Bonaven- 
tura  moving  for  the  suppression  of  all  the  primitive 
legends  that  his  own  compilation  may  be  substituted  for 
them. 

It  is  truly  singular  that  no  one  has  perceived  the  frag- 
mentary state  of  the  work  of  the  Three  Companions. 
The  prologue  alone  might  have  suggested  this  idea. 
Why  should  it  take  three  to  write  a  few  pages  ?  TVhy 
this  solemn  enumeration  of  Brothers  whose  testimony 
and  collaboration  are  asked  for  ?  There  would  be  a  sur- 
prising disproportion  between  the  effort  and  the  result. 

More  than  all,  the  authors  say  that  they  shall  not  stop 
at  relating  the  miracles,  but  they  desire  above  all  to 
exhibit  the  ideas  of  Francis  and  his  life  with  the  Brothers, 
but  we  search  in  vain  for  any  account  of  miracles  in  what 
we  now  have.2 

An  Italian  translation  of  this  legend,  published  by 

1  Hœc  omnia  patent  per  sua  [B.  Francisa]  verba  expressa  per  sanctum 
fratrem  virum  Leonem  ejus  s  cium  tarn  de  mandato  sancti  patris  quam 
etiam  de  dewtione  prœdicti  fratris  fuerunt  solemniter  conscripta,  in  libro 
qui  habetur  in  ar  mario  fratrum  de  Assisio  et  in  rotulis  ejus,  quos  apud  me 
habeo,  manu  ejusdem  fratris  Leonis  conscriptis.  ArcMc,  iii.,  p.  168. 
Cf.  p.  178. 

2  3  Soc,  Prol.  JVbn  contenti  narrare  solum  miracula   .    .    .  conver- 
sationis  insignia  et  pit '  beneplaciti  voluntatem. 


378 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


»  Father  Stanislaus  Melchiorri,1  has  suddenly  given  me  an 
indirect  confirmation  of  this  point  of  view.  This  monk 
is  only  its  publisher,  and  has  simply  been  able  to  dis- 
cover that  in  1577  it  was  taken  from  a  very  ancient 
manuscript  by  a  certain  Muzio  Achillei  di  San  Sev- 
er ino. 2 

This  Italian  translation  contained  only  the  last  chap- 
ters of  the  legend,  those  which  tell  of  the  death,  the  stig- 
mata, and  the  translation  of  the  remains.3  It  was,  then, 
made  at  a  time  when  the  suppressed  portion  had  not 
been  replaced  by  a  short  summary  of  the  other  legends. 

From  all  this  two  conclusions  emerge  for  the  critics  : 
1.  This  final  summary  has  not  the  same  authority  as  the 
rest  of  the  work,  since  the  time  when  it  was  added  is 
unknown.  2.  Fragments  of  a  legend  by  Brother  Leo  or 
by  the  Three  Companions  scattered  through  later  com- 
pilations may  be  perfectly  authentic. 

In  its  present  condition  this  legend  of  the  Three  Com- 
panions is  the  finest  piece  of  Franciscan  literature,  and 
one  of  the  most  delightful  productions  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  There  is  something  indescribably  sweet,  con- 
fiding, chaste,  in  these  pages,  an  energy  of  virile  youth 
which  the  Fioretti  suggest  but  never  attain  to.  At  more 
than  six  hundred  years  of  distance  the  purest  dream 
that  ever  thrilled  the  Christian  Church  seems  to  live 
again. 

These  friars  of  Greccio,  who,  scattered  over  the  moun- 
tain, under  the  shade  of  the  olive-trees,  passed  their 
days  in  singing  the  Hymn  of  the  Sun,  are  the*  true 
models  of  the  primitive  Umbrian  Masters.  They  are 
all  alike  ;  they  are  awkwardly  posed  ;  everything  in  and 

1  Leggenda  di  S.  Francesco,  tipografia  Morici  et  Badaloni,  Recanati, 
1856,  1  vol.,  8vo. 

2  See  Father  Stanislaus's  preface. 

3  3  Soc. ,  68-73. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


379 


around  them  sins  against  the  most  elementary  roles  of 
art,  and  yet  their  memory  pursues  you,  and  when  you 
have  long  forgotten  the  works  of  impeccable  modern 
artists  you  recall  without  effort  these  creations  of  those 
unknown  painters  ;  for  love  calls  foi*  love,  and  these 
vapid  personages  have  very  true  and  pure  hearts,  a  more 
than  human  love  shines  forth  from  thei**  whole  being, 
they  speak  to  you  and  make  you  better. 

Such  is  this  book,  the  first  utterance  of  the  Spiritual 
Franciscans,  in  which  we  already  see  the  coming  to  life 
of  some  of  those  bold  doctrines  that  not  only  divided  the 
Franciscan  family  into  two  hostile  branches,  but  which 
were  to  bring  some  of  their  defenders  to  the  heretic's 
stake.1 

V.  Fragments  of  the  Suppressed  Part  of  the  Legend  of  -*he 
Three  Companions 

We  may  now  take  a  step  forward  and  try  to  group 
the  fragments  of  the  Legend  of  the  Three  Compan- 
ions, or  of  Brother  Leo,  which  are  to  be  found  in  later 
writings. 

We  must  here  be  more  than  ever  on  our  guard  against 
absolute  theories  ;  one  of  the  most  fruitful  principles  of 
historic  criticism  is  to  prefer  contemporary  documents, 
or  at  least  those  which  are  nearest  them  ;  but  even  with 
these  it  is  necessary  to  use  a  little  discretion. 

It  seems  impossible  to  attack  the  reasoning  of  the  Bol- 
landists,  who  refuse  to  know  anything  of  legends  written 
after  that  of  St.  Bonaventura  (1260),  under  pretext  that, 

1  The  book  lacks  little  of  representing  St.  Francis  as  taking  up  the 
work  of  Jesus,  interrupted  (by  the  fault  of  the  secular  clergy)  since  the 
time  of  the  apostles.  The  wri  evangelici  consider  the  members  of  the 
clergy  filios  extraneos.  3  Soc,  48  and  51.  Cf.  3  Soc,  48.  Invent  virum 
.  .  .  per  quern  credo  Dominus  velit  in  toto  mundofedem  sanctœ  Ec- 
clesiœ  reformare.  Cf.  2  Cel.,  3,  141.  Yidebatur  rêvera  fratri  et  om- 
nium comitatium  turbce  quod  Ckrisii  et  b.  Francisci  una  persona  foret. 


380 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


coming  after  several  other  authorized  biographies,  he 
was  •  better  situated  than  anyone  for  getting  information 
and  completing  the  work  of  his  predecessors.1  In  reality 
this  is  absurd,  for  it  assumes  that  Bonaventura  under- 
took to  write  as  a  historian.  This  is  to  forget  that  he 
wrote  not  only  for  the  purpose  of  edification,  but  also  as 
minister-general  of  the  Minor  Brothers.  From  this  fact 
his  first  duty  was  to  keep  silent  on  many  facts,  and  those 
not  the  least  interesting.  What  shall  we  say  of  a  biogra- 
phy where  Francis's  Will  is  not  even  mentioned  ? 

It  is  easy  to  turn  away  from  a  writing  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  on  the  ground  that  the  author  did  not  see  what 
was  going  on  a  hundred  years  before  ;  still  we  must  not 
forget  that  many  books  of  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages 
resemble  those  old  mansions  at  which  four  or  five  gen- 
erators have  toiled.  An  inscription  on  their  front  often 
only  shows  the  touch  of  the  last  restorer  or  the  last 
destroyer,  and  the  names  which  are  set  forth  witli  the 
greatest  complacency  are  not  always  those  of  the  real 
workmen. 

Such  have  been  many  Franciscan  books  ;  to  attribute 
them  to  any  one  author  would  be  impracticable  ;  very 
different  hands  have  worked  upon  them,  and  such  an 
amalgam  has  its  own  charm  and  interest. 

Turning  them  over — I  had  almost  said  associating  with 
them — we  come  to  see  clearly  into  this  tangled  web,  for 
every  work  of  man  bears  the  trace  of  the  hand  that  made 
it  :  this  trace  may  perhaps  be  of  an  almost  imperceptible 
delicacy;  it  exists  none  the  less,  ready  to  reveal  itself  to 
practised  eyes.  What  is  more  impersonal  than  the  pho- 
tograph of  a  landscape  or  of  a  painting,  and  yet  among 
several  hundreds  of  proofs  the  amateur  will  go  straight 
to  the  work  of  the  operator  he  prefers. 

These  reflections  were  suggested  by  the  careful  study 

1  A.  SS.  p.  552. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


381 


of  a  curious  book  printed  many  times  since  the  sixteenth 
century,  the  Speculum  Vitœ  S.  Francisai  et  sociorum  ejus.1 
A  complete  study  of  this  work,  its  sources,  its  printed 
editions,  the  numerous  differences  in  the  manuscripts, 
would  by  itself  require  a  yolume  and  an  epitome  of  the 
history  of  the  Order.  I  can  give  here  only  a  few  notes, 
taking  for  base  the  oldest  edition,  that  of  1504. 

The  confusion  which  reigns  here  is  frightful.  Inci- 
dents in  the  life  of  Francis  and  his  companions  are 
brought  together  with  no  plan  ;  several  of  them  are  re- 
peated after  the  interval  of  a  few  pages  in  a  quite  differ- 
ent manner;2  certain  chapters  are  so  awkwardly  intro- 
duced that  the  compiler  has  forgotten  to  remove  the 
number  that  they  bore  in  the  work  from  which  he  bor- 
rowed them  ; 3  finally,  to  our  great  surprise,  we  find  sev- 
eral IiicipitJ 

1  Venetiis,  expensis  d.omini  Jordanî  de  Dinslaken  per  Simonem  de 
Luere,  80  januarii,  1504.  Impressum  Metis  per  Jasparem  Hocliffedei; 
Anno  Domini  1509.  These  two  editions  are  identical,  small  12mos,  of 
240  folios  "badly  numbered.  Edited  under  the  same  title  by  Spoelberch, 
Antwerp,  1620,  2  tomes  in  one  volume,  8vo.  208  and  192  pages,  with  a 
mass  of  alterations.  The  most  important  manuscript  resembles  that  of 
the  Vatican  4354.  There  are  two  at  the  Mazarin  Library.  904  and  1350, 
dated  1459  and  1460,  one  at  Berlin  (MS.  theol.  lat.  4to,  no.  196  saec. 
14).  Vide  Ehrle,  Zdtschrift,  t.  vii.  (1883),  p.  392f  ;  Analecta  fr.,  t.  i., 
p.  ^\.;  Miscellanea,  1888,  pp.  119,  164.    Cf.  A.  SS..  pp.  550-552. 

The  chapters  are  numbered  in  the  first  72  folios  only,  but  these 
numbers  teem  with  errors  ;  fo.  88b.  caput  lix.,  40b,  lix.,  41b,  lxi. ,  ibid., 
lxii.,  42a,  lx.,  43a,  lxi.  Besides  at  fos.  46b  and  47b  there  a*e  two 
chapters  lxvi.    There  are  two  lxxi. ,  two  lxxii.,  two  lxxiii.,  etc. 

2  For  example,  the  history  of  the  brigands  of  Monte-Casale,  fos.  46b, 
and  58b.  The  remarks  of  Brother  Elias  to  Francis,  who  is  continually 
singing.  136b  and  137a.  The  visit  of  Giacomina  di  Settesoli,  133a  and 
138a.    The  autograph  benediction  given  to  Brother  Leo.  87a  ;  188a. 

3  At  fo.  20b  we  read  :  Tertium  capitulant  de  charitate  et  compassione  ct 
condescensions  ad  proximum.  Gapitulum  xxvi.  Cf.  26a,  83a,  117b, 
119a,  122a,  128b,  133b,  186b,  where  there  are  similar  indications. 

4  Fo.  5b  :  Incipit  Speculum  ntœ  b.  Francesci  et  sociorum  ejus.  Fo.  7b? 
IncipU  Speculum  perfectionis. 


3S2 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


However,  with  a  little  perseverance  we  soon  perceive 
a  few  openings  in  the  labyrinth.  In  the  first  place,  here 
are  several  chapters  of  the  legend  of  Bonaventura  which 
seem  to  have  been  put  in  the  van  as  if  to  protect  the  rest 
of  the  book.  If  we  abstract  them  and  the  whole  series 
of  chapters  from  the  Fioretti,  we  shall  have  diminished 
the  work  by  nearly  three-quarters. 

If  we  take  away  two  more  chapters  taken  from  St. 
Bernard  of  Clairvaux  and  those  containing  Franciscan 
prayers,  or  various  attestations  concerning  the  indulgence 
of  Portiuncula,  we  finally  arrive  at  a  sort  of  residue,  if 
the  expression  may  be  forgiven,  of  a  remarkable  homo- 
geneity. 

Here  the  style  is  very  different  from  that  in  the  sur- 
rounding pages,  closely  recalling  that  of  the  Three  Com- 
panions ;  a  single  thought  inspires  these  pages,  that  the 
corner-stone  of  the  Order  is  the  love  of  poverty. 

Why  should  we  not  have  here  some  fragments  of  the 
original  legend  of  the  Three  Companions  ?  We  find 
here  nothing  which  does  not  fit  in  with  what  we  know, 
nothing  which  suggests  the  embellishments  of  a  late  tra- 
dition. 

To  confirm  this  hypothesis  come  different  passages 
which  we  find  cited  by  Ubertini  di  Casali  and  by  Angelo 
Clareno  as  being  by  Brother  Leo,  and  an  attentive 
comparison  of  the  text  shows  that'  these  authors  can 
neither  have  drawn  them  from  the  Speculum  nor  the 
Speculum  from  them. 

There  is,  besides,  one  phrase  which,  apart  from  the  in- 
spiration and  style,  will  suffice  at  the  first  glance  to  mark 
the  common  origin  of  most  of  these  pieces.1  Nos  qui 
cum  ijiso  fuimus.   "  We  who  have  been  with  him."  These 

1  We  should  search  for  it  in  vain  in  the  other  pieces  of  the  Speculum, 
and  it  reappears  in  the  fragments  of  Brother  Leo  cited  by  Ubertini  di 
Casali  and  Angelo  Clareno. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


3S3 


words,  which  recur  in  almost  every  incident,1  are  in  many 
cases  only  a  grateful  tribute  to  their  spiritual  father,  but 
sometimes,  too,  they  have  a  touch  of  bitterness.  These 
hermits  of  Greccio  suddenly  recall  to  mind  their  rights. 
Are  we  not  the  only,  the  true  interpreters  of  the  Saint's 
instructions — we  who  lived  continually  with  him;  we 
who,  hour  after  hour,  have  meditated  upon  his  words, 
his  sighs,  and  his  hymns  ? 

We  can  understand  that  such  pretensions  were  not  to 
the  taste  of  the  Common  Observance,  and  that  Cres- 
centius,  with  an  incontestable  authority,  has  suppressed 
nearly  all  this  legend.2 

As  for  the  fragments  that  have  been  preserved  to 
us,  though  they  furnish  many  details  about  the  last 
years  of  St.  Francis's  life,  they  still  are  not  those  whose 
loss  is  so  much  to  be  regretted.  The  authors  who  repro- 
duce them  were  defending  a  cause.  We  owe  them  little 
more  than  the  incidents  which  in  one  way  or  another 
concern  the  question  of  poverty.  They  had  nothing  to 
do  with  the  other  accounts,  as  they  were  not  writing  a 
biography.  But  even  within  these  narrow  limits  these 
fragments  are  in  the  first  order  of  importance  ;  and  I 
have  not  hesitated  to  use  them  largely.  It  is  needless 
to  say  that  while  ascribing  their  origin  to  the  Three 
Companions,  and  in  particular  to  Brother  Leo,  we  must 
not  suppose  that  we  have  the  very  letter  in  the  texts 
which  have  come  down  to  us.  The  pieces  given  by 
Ubertini  di  Casali  and  Angelo  Clareno  are  actual  cita- 
tions, and  deserve  full  confidence  as  such.  As  for  those 
which  are  preserved  to  us  in  the  Speculum,  they  may 

1  Fo.  8b,  11a,  12a,  15a,  18b,  21b,  23b,  26a,  29a,  33b,  43b,  41a,  48b, 
118a,  129a,  130a,  134a,  135a,  136a. 

2  Does  not  Thomas  de  Celano  say  in  the  prologue  of  the  Second  Life  : 
"  Oramus  ergo,  benignissime  pater,  ut  laboris  7iujus  non  contemnenda 
munuscula  .  .  .  vestra  benedictione  conseerare  xelitis,  corrigenda 
errata  et  mperfluq  resecantes." 


384 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


often  have  been  abridged,  explanatory  notes  may  have 
slipped  into  the  text,  but  nowhere  do  we  find  inter- 
polations in  the  bad  sense  of  the  word.1 

Finally,  if  we  compare  the  fragments  with  the  cor- 
responding accounts  in  the  Second  Life  of  Celano,  we 
see  that  the  latter  has  often  borrowed  verbatim  from 
Brother  Leo,  but  generally  he  has  considerably  abridged 
the  passages,  adding  reflections  here  and  there,  es- 
pecially retouching  the  style  to  make  it  more  elegant. 

1  The  legend  of  3  Soc.  was  preserved  in  the  Convent  of  Assisi  :  ■'  Om- 
nia .  .  .  fuerunt  conscripta  .  .  .  per  Leonem  .  .  .  inlibro 
qui  habetur  in  armario  fratram  de  Assisio."  Ubertiui,  ArcJtiv.,  iii.,  p. 
1G8.  Later,  Brother  Leo  seems  to  have  gone  more  into  detail  as  to 
certain  facts  ;  he  confided  these  new  manuscripts  to  the  Clarisses  :  "In 
rotulis  ejus  quos  apud  me  habeo,  manu  ejusdem  fratres  Leonis  con- 
scriptis,"  ibid.  Cf.  p.  178.  "Quod  sequitur  a  sancto  f  ratre  Conrado 
predicto  et  vim  voce  audivit  a  sancto  fratre  Leone  qui  presens  erat  et 
regulam  scripsit.  Et  hoc  ipsum  in  quibusdam  rotulis  manu  sua  con- 
scriptis  quos  commendavit  in  monasterio  8.  Clarœ  custodiendos.  .  .  . 
In  Mis  multa  scrijjsit  .  .  .  quœ  industria  fr.  Bonaventura  omisit  et 
noluit  in  legenda  publiée  scribere,  maxime  quia  aliqua  erant  ibi  in  quibus 
ex  tunc  deviatio  regulœ  publiée  monstrabatur  et  nolebat  fratres  ante  tem- 
pus  in  fa  mare."  Arbor.,  lib.  v.,  cap.  5.  Cf.  Antiquitates,  p.  146.  Cf. 
Speculum,  50b.  "Infra  scripta  verba,  f rater  Leo  socius  et  Confessor 
B.  Francisci,  Conrado  de  Offida,  dicebat  se  habuisse  ex  ore  Beati  Patris 
nostri  Francisci,  quœ  idem  Frater  Conradus  retulit,  apud  Sanctum  Da- 
mianum prope  Assisium." 

Conrad  di  Offidia  copied,  then,  both  the  book  of  Brother  Leo  and  his 
rotuli ;  he  added  to  it  certain  oral  information  (Arbor,  vit.  crue,  lib. 
v.,  cap.  3),  and  so  perhaps  composed  the  collection  so  often  cited  by  the 
Conformists  under  the  title  of  Legenda  Antiqua  and  reproduced  in  part 
in  the  Speculum. 

The  numbering  of  the  chapters,  which  the  Speculum  has  awkwardly 
inserted  without  noting  that  they  were  not  in  accord  with  his  own 
division,  were  vestiges  of  the  division  adopted  by  Conrad  di  Offida. 

It  may  well  be  that,  after  the  interdiction  of  his  book  and  its  confisca- 
tion at  the  Sacro  Convento,  Brother  Leo  repeated  in  his  rotuli  a  large 
part  of  the  facts  already  made,  so  that  the  same  incident,  while  coming 
solely  from  Brother  Leo,  could  be  presented  under  two  different  forms, 
according  as  it  would  be  copied  from  the  book  or  the  rotuli. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


385 


Such  a  comparison  soon  proves  that  Brother  Leo's 
narratives  are  the  original  and  that  it  is  impossible  to 
see  in  them  a  later  amplification  of  those  of  Thomas  of 
Celano,  as  we  might  at  first  be  tempted  to  think  them.1 

VI.  Second  Life  by  Thomas  of  Celano  2 
First  Part 

In  consequence  of  the  decision  of  the  chapter  of  1244 
search  vas  begun  in  all  quarters  for  memorials  of  the 

1  Compare,  for  example,  2  Cel.,  120  :  Vocation  of  Jolin  the  Simple, 
and  Speculum,  f 0  37a.  From  the  account  of  Thomas  de  Celano,  one 
does  not  understand  what  drew  John  to  St.  Francis  ;  in  the  Speculum 
everything  is  explained,  but  Celano  has  not  dared  to  depict  Francis  go- 
ing about  preaching  with  a  broom  upon  his  shoulder  to  sweep  the  dirty- 
churches. 

2  It  was  published  for  the  first  time  at  Rome,  in  1806,  by  Father 
Rinaldi,  following  upon  the  First  Life  (vide  above,  p  365,  note  2),  and 
restored  in  1880  by  Abbé  Amoni  :  Vita  secunda  S.  Francisci  Assisiensis 
auctore  B.  Thomade  Celano  ejus  discipulo.  Romœ,  tipografia  delta  pace, 
1880,  8vo,  152  pp.  The  citations  are  from  this  last  edition,  which  I 
collated  at  Assisi  with  the  most  important  of  the  rare  manuscripts  at 
present  known  :  Archives  of  Sacro  Convento,  MS.  086,  on  parchment 
of  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century,  if  I  do  not  mistake,  130  millim. 
by  142  ;  102  numbered  pages.  Except  for  the  fact  that  the  book  is 
divided  into  two  parts  instead  of  three,  the  last  two  forming  only  one, 
I  have  not  found  that  it  noticeably  differs  from  the  text  published  by 
Amoni  ;  the  chapters  are  divided  only  by  a  paragraph  and  a  red  letter, 
but  they  have  in  the  table  which  occupies  the  first  seven  pages  of  the 
volume  the  same  titles  as  in  the  edition  Amoni. 

This  Second  Life  escaped  the  researches  of  the  Bollandists.  It  is 
impossible  to  explain  how  these  students  ignored  the  worth  of  the 
manuscript  which  Father  Theobaldi,  keeper  of  the  records  of  Assisi, 
mentioned  to  them,  and  of  which  he  offered  them  a  copy  (A.  SS.,  Oct., 
t.  ii.,  p.  546f).  Father  Suysken  was  thus  thrown  into  inextricable 
difficulties,  and  exposed  to  a  failure  to  understand  the  lists  of  biog- 
raphies of  St.  Francis  arranged  by  the  annalists  of  the  Order  ;  he  was 
at  the  same  time  deprived  of  one  of  the  most  fruitful  sources  of  in- 
formation upon  the  acts  and  works  of  the  Saint.  Professor  Millier  (Die 
Anfânge,  pp.  175-184)  was  the  first  to  make  a  critical  study  of  this 
legend.  His  conclusions  appear  to  me  narrow  and  extreme.  Cf.  Ana- 
25 


386 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


early  times  of  the  Order.  In  view  of  tlie  ardor  of  this 
inquiry,  in  which  zeal  for  the  glory  of  the  Franciscan 
institute  certainly  cast  the  interests  of  history  into  the 
background,  the  minister-general,  Crescentius,  was  obliged 
to  take  certain  precautions. 

Many  of  the  pieces  that  he  received  were  doing 
double  duty  ;  others  might  contradict  one  another  ;  many 
of  them,  under  color  of  telling  the  life  of  the  Saint, 
had  no  other  object  than  to  oppose  the  present  to  the 
past. 

It  soon  became  imperative  to  constitute  a  sort  of  com- 
mission charged  to  study  and  coordinate  all  this  matter.1 
What  more  natural  than  to  put  Thomas  of  Celano  at 
its  head  ?  Ever  since  the  approbation  of  the  first  legend 
by  Gregory  IX.  he  had  appeared  to  be  in  a  sense  the 
official  historiographer  of  the  Order.2 

This  view  accords  perfectly  with  the  contents  of  the 
seventeen  chapters  which  contain  the  first  part  of  the 
second  legend.  It  offers  itself  at  the  outset  as  a  com- 
pilation. Celano  is  surrounded  with  companions  who 
help  him.3  A  more  attentive  examination  shows  that  its 
principal  source  is  the  Legend  of  the  Three  Companions, 

lecta  fr.,  t.  ii.,  pp.  xvii.-xx.  Father  Ehrle  mentions  two  manuscripts, 
one  in  the  British  Museum,  Harl.,  47  ;  the  other  at  Oxford,  Christ 
College,  cod.  202.   Zeitschrift,  1883,  p.  390. 

1  The  Three  Companions  foresee  the  possibility  of  their  legend  being 
incorporated  with  other  documents  :  qiiibus  {legendis)  hœc  pauca  quœ 
scribim>is  poteritis  facer e  inscri,  si  testra  discretio  viderit  esse  justum. 
3  Soc,  Prol. 

2  One  phrase  of  the  Prologue  (2  Cel.)  shows  that  the  author  received 
an  entirely  special  commission  :  Placuit  .  .  .  wbis  .  .  .  par- 
ntati  nostra)  injungere,  while  on  the  contrary  the  3  Soc.  shows  that 
the  decision  of  the  chapter  only  remotely  considered  them  :  Cum 
de  mandato  prœteriti  capituli  fratres  teneantur  .  .  .  visum  est 
nobis  .  .  .  pauca  de  multis  .  .  .  sanctitati  vestrœ  intimare. 
3  Soc,  Prol. 

3  Compare  the  Prologue  of  2  Cel.  with  that  of  1  Cel. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES  387 


which  the  compilers  worked  over,  sometimes  filling  out 
certain  details,  more  often  making  large  excisions. 

Everything  that  does  not  concern  St.  Francis  is  ruth- 
lessly proscribed  ;  we  feel  the  well-defined  purpose  to 
leave  in  the  background  the  disciples  who  so  compla- 
cently placed  themselves  in  the  foreground.1 

The  work  of  the  Three  Companions  had  been  finished 
August  11,  1246.  On  July  13,  1247,  the  chapter  of 
Lyons  put  an  end  to  the  powers  of  Crescentius.  It  is, 
therefore,  between  these  two  dates  that  we  must  place 
the  composition  of  the  first  part  of  Thomas  of  Celano's 
Second  Life.2 

VII.  Second  Life  by  Thomas  of  Celano  3 
Second  Part 

The  election  of  Giovanni  di  Parma  (1217-1257)  as 
successor  of  Crescentius  was  a  victory  for  the  Zealots. 
This  man,  in  whose  work-table  the  birds  came  to  make 
their  nests,4  was  to  astonish  the  world  by  his  virtues.  No 
one  saw  more  deeply  into  St.  Francis's  heart,  no  one  was 
more  worthy  to  take  up  and  continue  his  work. 

He  soon  asked  Celano  to  resume  his  work.5    The  lat- 

1  Longumesset  de  singulis  persequi,  qualiter  bravium  supernœ  wcationis 
attigerit.    2  Cel.,  1,  10. 

2  This  first  part  corresponds  exactly  to  that  portion  of  the  legend  of 
the  3  Soc,  which  Crescentius  had  authorized.  , 

3  Observe  that  the  Assiei  MS.  686  divides  the  Second  Life  into  two 
parts  only  by  joining  the  last  two. 

4  Salimbeni,  ami.  1248. 

5  Glassberger,  ann.  1253.  An.  fr.  t.  ii.,  p.  73.  Frater  Johannes  de 
Parma  minister  generalis,  multiplicatis  litteris  prœcipitfr.  Thorn œ  de  Ce- 
lano (cod.  Ceperano),  ut  vitam  beati  Francisai  quœ  antiqua  Legenda 
dicitur  perficeret,  quia  solum  de  ejus  conversations  et  verbis  in  primo 
tractatu,  de  mandato,  Fr.  Crescentii  olim  generalis  compilato,  omissis  mi- 
raculis  fecerat  inentionem,  et  sic  secundum  tractatum  de  miraculis  sancti 
Patris  compilant,  quern  cum  epistola  quœ  incipit  :  Beligiosa  vestra  sol- 
licitudo  cidem  generali  misit. 

This  treatise  on  the  miracles  is  lost,  for  one  cannot  identify  it,  as  M. 


388 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


ter  was  perhaps  alone  at  first,  but  little  by  little  a  group 
of  collaborators  formed  itself  anew  about  him.1  Thence- 
forth nothing  prevented  his  doing  with  that  portion  of 
the  work  of  the  Three  Companions  which  Crescentius 
had  suppressed  what  he  had  already  done  with  the  part 
he  had  approved. 

The  Legend  of  Brother  Leo  has  thus  come  down  to 
us,  entirely  worked  over  by  Thomas  of  Celano,  abridged 
and  with  all  its  freshness  gone,  but  still  of  capital  impor- 
tance in  the  absence  of  the  major  part  of  the  original. 

The  events  of  which  we  possess  two  accounts  permit 
us  to  measure  the  extent  of  our  loss.  We  find,  in  fact, 
in  Celano's  compilation  all  that  we  expected  to  find  in 
the  Three  Companions  :  the  incidents  belong  especially 
to  the  last  two  years  of  Francis's  life,  and  the  scene  of 
many  of  them  is  either  Greccio  or  one  of  the  hermitages 
of  the  vale  of  Kieti  ; 2  according  to  tradition,  Brother  Leo 
was  the  hero  of  a  great  number  of  the  incidents  here  re- 
lated 3  and  all  the  citations  that  Ubertim  di  Casali  makes 
from  Brother  Leo's  book  find  their  correspondents  here.4 

Miiller  suggests  (Anfânge,  p.  177),  with  the  second  part  (counting  three 
with  the  Amoni  edition)  of  the  Second  Life  :  Ie,  epistle  Beligiosa  vestra 
soUicitudo  does  not  have  it  ;  2%  this  second  part  is  not  a  collection  of  mir- 
acles, using  this  word  in  the  sense  of  miraculous  cures  which  it  had  in 
the  thirteenth  century.  The  twenty-two  chapters  of  this  second  part 
"have  a  marked  unity  ;  they  might  be  entitled  Francis  a  propliet,  but 
not  Francis  a  tliaumaturgus. 

1  In  the  Prologue  (2  Cel.,  2,  Prol.)  Insignia patrum  the  author  speaks 
in  the  singular,  while  the  Epilogue  is  written  in  the  name  of  a  group  of 
disciples. 

2  Greccio,  2  Cel.,  2,  5  ;  14  ;  3,  7  ;  10  ;  103.—  Rieti,  2  Cel.,  2,  10  ;  11  ; 
12  ;  13  ;  3,  36;  37;  6G  ;  103. 

3 St.  Francis  gives  him  an  autograph,  2  Cel.,  2,  18.  Cf.  Fior.  ii. 
consul.  ;  his  tunic,  2  Cel.,  2, 19  ;  he  predicts  to  him  a  famine,  2  Cel.,  2, 
21  ;  cf.  Conform.,  49b.    Fr.  Leo  ill  at  Bologna,  2  Cel.,  3,  5. 

4  The  text  of  Ubertini  di  Casali  may  be  found  in  the  Archk.,  t.  iii., 
pp.  53,  75,  76,  85,  168,  178,  where  Father  Ehrle  points  out  the  cor- 
responding passages  of  2  Cel. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


3S9 


This  second  part  of  the  Second  Life  perfectly  reflects 
the  new  circumstances  to  which  it  owes  its  existence. 
The  question  of  Poverty  dominates  everything  ; 1  the 
struggle  between  the  two  parties  in  the  Order  reveals  it- 
self on  every  page  ;  the  collaborators  are  determined 
that  each  event  narrated  shall  be  an  indirect  lesson  to  the 
Liberals,  to  whom  they  oppose  the  Spirituals  ;  the  popes 
had  commented  on  the  Rule  in  the  large  sense  ;  they,  on 
their  side,  undertook  to  comment  on  it  in  a  sense  at  once 
literal  and  spiritual,  by  the  actions  and  words  of  its 
author  himself. 

History  has  hardly  any  part  here  except  as  the  vehicle 
of  a  thesis,  a  fact  which  diminishes  nothing  of  the  his- 
toric value  of  the  information  given  in  the  course  of 
these  pages.  But  while  in  Celano's  First  Life  and  in  the 
Legend  of  the  Three  Companions  the  facts  succeed  one 
another  organically,  here  they  are  placed  side  by  side. 
Therefore  when  we  come  to  read  this  work  we  are  sensi- 
ble of  a  fall  ;  even  from  the  literary  point  of  view  the 
inferiority  makes  itself  cruelly  felt.  Instead  of  a  poem 
we  have  before  us  a  catalogue,  very  cleverly  made,  it  is 
true,  but  with  no  power  to  move  us. 

VIII.  Notes  ox  a  Few  Secondary  Documents 
a.  Celano  s  Life  of  St.  Frauds  for  Use  in  the  Choir 
Thomas  of  Celano  made  also  a  short  legend  for  use 

in  the  choir.   It  is  divided  into  nine  lessons  and  served  for 

the  Franciscan  breviaries  up  to  the  time  when  St.  Bona- 

ventura  made  his  Legend':'  Minor. 

That  of  Celano  may  be  found  in  part  (the  first  three 

lessons)  in  the  Assisi  MS.  338,  fol.  52a-53b  ;  it  is  pre- 

1  It  is  the  subject  of  thirty-seven  narratives  (1,  2  Cel.,  3.  1-37),  then 
come  examples  on  the  spirit  of  prayer  (2  Cel.,  3,  38-44),  the  temptations 
(2  Cel.,  3,  58-64),  true  happiness  (2  Cel.,  3,  64-79),  humility  (2  Cel.,  3, 
79-87),  submission  (2  Cel.,  3.  88,  91).  etc. 


390 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


ceded  by  a  letter  of  envoy  :  "  Rogasti  me  f rater  Bénédicte, 
ut  de  legenda  B.  P.  N.  F.  quœdam  exciperem  et  in  novem 
lectionum  seriem  ordinarem  .  .  .  etc.  B.  Francisais 
de  civitate  Assisii  ortus  a  puerilibus  annis  nutritus  extitit 
insolent  er." 

This  work  has  no  historic  importance. 

b.  Life  of  St.  Francis  in  Verse. 

In  the  list  of  biographers  has  sometimes  been  counted 
a  poem  in  hexameter  verse 1  the  text  of  which  was  edited 
in  1882  by  the  lamented  Cristofani.2 

This  work  does  not  furnish  a  single  new  historic  note. 
It  is  the  Life  by  Celano  in  verse  and  nothing  more  ;  the 
author's  desire  was  to  figure  as  a  poet.  It  is  superflu- 
ous, therefore,  to  concern  ourselves  with  it.3 

c.  Biography  of  St.  Francis  by  Giovanni  di  Ceperano. 
One  of  the  biographies  which  disappeared,  no  doubt 

in  consequence  of  the  decision  of  the  chapter  of  1266,4  is 
that  of  Giovanni  di  Ceperano.  The  resemblance  of  his 
name  to  that  of  Thomas  of  Celano  has  occasioned  much 
confusion.5  The  most  precious  information  which  we 
have  respecting  him  is  given  by  Bernard  of  Besse  in  the 
opening  of  his  Be  laudibus  St.  Francisci  :  "  Plenam 
virtutibus  B.  Francisci  vitam  scripsit  in  Italia  exquisites 

1  Le  Monnier,  t.  i.,  p.  xi.  ;  F.  Barnabe,  Portiuncula,  p.  15.  Cf. 
Anakctafr.,  t.  ii.,  p.  xxi.  Zeitschrift  fur  kath.  TJieol.,  vii.  (1883),  p. 
397. 

2 11  piu  antico  poema  delta  vita  di  S.  Francisco  d' Assist  scritto  inanzi 
all'  anno  1230  ora  per  la  prima  volta  pubblicato  et  tradoito  da  Antonio 
Cristofani,  Prato,  1882,  1  vol.,  8vo,  288  pp. 

3  Note,  however,  two  articles  of  the  Miscellanea,  one  on  the  manu- 
script of  this  biography  which  is  found  in  the  library  at  Versailles,  t. 
iv.(1889),  p.  34  ff.  ;  the  other  on  the  author  of  the  poem,  t.  v.  (1890), 
pp.  2-4  and  74  ff. 

4  See  below,  p.  410. 

6  Vide  Glassberger,  ann.  1244  ;  Analecta,  t.  ii.,  p.  68.  Cf.  A.  SS.,  p. 
545  ff. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


391 


vir  eloquentiœ  fr.  Ttiomas  jubente  Domino  Gregorio  pa- 
pa IX.  et  earn  quœ  incipit  :  Quasi  stella  matutina  vir 
venerabilis  Dominus  et  fertur  Joannes,  Apostolicœ  sedis 
notarius  " 1 

In  the  face  of  so  precise  a  text  all  doubt  as  to  the  ex- 
istence of  the  work  of  Giovanni  di  Ceperano  is  impossible. 
The  Reverend  Father  Denifle  has  been'  able  to  throw  new 
light  upon  this  question.  In  a  manuscript  containing  the 
liturgy  of  the  Brothers  Minor  and  finished  in  1256  he 
found  the  nine  lessons  for  the  festival  of  St.  Francis  pre- 
ceded by  the  title  :  Ex  gestis  ejus  abbreviatis  quœ  sic  in- 
cipiunt:  Quasi  stella  (Zeitschrift  fur  hath.  Theol.,  vii.,  p. 
710.  Cf.  Archiv.,  i.5  p.  148).  This  summary  of  Ceperano's 
work  gives,  as  we  should  expect,  no  new  information  ;  but 
perhaps  we  need  not  despair  of  finding  the  very  work  of 
this  author. 

d.  Life  of  St.  Francis  by  Brother  Julian. 

It  was  doubtless  about  1230  that  Brother  Julian,  the 
Teuton,  who  had  been  chapel-master  at  the  court  of  the 
King  of  France,  was  commissioned  to  put  the  finishing 
touches  to  the  Office  of  St.  Francis.'  Evidently  such  a 
work  would  contain  nothing  original,  and  its  loss  is  little 
felt. 

IX.  Legend  of  St.  Boxavextura 

Under  the  generalate  of  Giovanni  di  Parma  (1247-1257) 
the  Franciscan  parties  underwent  modifications,  in  conse- 
quence of  which  their  opposition  became  still  more  strik- 
ing than  before. 

1  Manuscript  in  the  Library  of  Turin,  J.  vi..  33.  f  95a. 

2  Plenum  virtutibus  S.  Francisci  vitam  scripsit  in  Italia  .  .  .  fra- 
ter  Thomas  .  .  .  in  Francia  verofrater  Julianus  scientia  et  sancti- 
tate  conspicuus  qui  etiarn  nocturnali  sancti  officium  in  Mitera  et  cantu 
possuit  prœter  hymnos  et  aliquas  antiplionas  quœ  summits  ipse  PonUfex  a 
aliqui  de  Cardinalibus  in  sancti  prœconium  ediderunt.  Opening  of  the 
De  laudibus  of  Bernard  of  Besse.  See  below,  p.  413.  Lanr.  MS., 
f°  95a.    Cf.  Giord.,  53;  Conform,,  75b. 


392 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


The  Zelanfci,  with  the  minister-general  at  their  head,  en- 
thusiastically adopted  the  views  of  Gioacchino  di  Fiore. 
The  predictions  of  the  Calabrian  abbot  corresponded  too 
well  with  their  inmost  convictions  for  any  other  course 
to  be  possible  :  they  seemed  to  see  Francis,  as  a  new 
Christ,  inaugurating  the  third  era  of  the  world. 

For  a  few  years  these  dreams  moved  all  Europe  ;  the 
faith  of  the  Joachimites  was  so  ardent  that  it  made  its 
way  by  its  own  force  ;  sceptics  like  Salimbeni  told  them- 
selves that  on  the  whole  it  was  surely  wiser  not  to  be 
taken  unawares  by  the  great  catastrophe  of  1260,  and 
hastened  in  crowds  to  the  cell  of  Hyères  to  be  initiated 
by  Hugues  de  Digne  in  the  mysteries  of  the  new  times  : 
as  to  the  people,  they  waited,  trembling,  divided  between 
hope  and  terror.  Nevertheless  their  adversaries  did  not 
consider  themselves  beaten,  and  the  Liberal  party  still  re- 
mained the  most  numerous.  Of  an  angelic  purity,  Gio- 
vanni di  Parma  believed  in  the  omnipotence  of  example  : 
events  showed  how  mistaken  he  was  ;  at  the  close  of  his 
term  of  office  scandals  were  not  less  flagrant  than  ten 
years  earlier.1 

Between  these  two  extreme  parties,  against  which  he 
was  to  proceed  with  equal  rigor,  stood  that  of  the  Mod- 
erates, to  which  belonged  St.  Bonaventura.2 

A  mystic,  but  of  a  formal  and  orthodox  mysticism,  he 
saw  the  revolution  toward  which  the  Church  was  hasten- 
ing if  the  party  of  the  eternal  Gospel  was  to  triumph  ;  its 

1  In  proof  of  this  is  the  circular  letter,  Licet  insufficentiam  nostram, 
addressed  by  Bonaventura,  April  23,  1257,  immediately  after  his  elec- 
tion, to  the  provincials  and  custodes  upon  the  reformation  of  the  Order. 
Text  :  Speculum,  Morin,  tract,  iii.,  f°  213a. 

-  Salimbeni,  ann.  1248,  p.  131.  The  Chronica  tribulationum  gives 
a  long  and  dramatic  account  of  these  events  :  Arcliiv.,  t.  ii.,  pp.  283  ff. 
"  Tunc  enirn  sapientia  et  sanctitas  fratris  Bonaventurœ  eclipsata  paluit 
et  obscurata  est  et  ejus  manswetudo  (sic)  ab  agitante  spiritu  in  furorum  et 
iram  drfecit."    Ib.,  p.  283. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOUECES 


393 


victory  would  not  be  that  of  this,  or  that  heresy  in  detail, 
it  would  be,  with  brief  delay,  the  ruin  of  the  entire  eccle- 
siastical edifice  ;  he  was  too  perspicacious  not  to  see  that 
in  the  last  analysis  the  struggle  then  going  on  was  that 
of  the  individual  conscience  against  authority.  This  ex- 
plains, and  up  to  a  certain  point  gains  him  pardon  for, 
his  severities  against  his  opponents  ;  he  was  supported 
by  the  court  of  Rome  and  by  all  those  who  desired  to 
make  the  Order  a  school  at  once  of  piety  and  of  learning. 

Xo  sooner  was  he  elected  general  than,  with  a  purpose 
that  never  knew  hesitation,  and  a  will  whose  firmness 
made  itself  everywhere  felt,  lie  took  his  steps  to  forward 
this  double  aim.  On  the  very  morrow  of  his  nomination 
he  sketched  the  programme  of  reforms  against  the  Liberal 
party,  and  at  the  same  time  secured  the  summons  of  the 
Joachimite  Brothers  before  an  ecclesiastical  tribunal  at 
Città-della-Pieve.  This  tribunal  condemned  them  to 
perpetual  imprisonment,  and  it  needed  the  personal  in- 
tervention of  Cardinal  Ottobonus,  the  future  Adrian  Y., 
for  Giovanni  di  Parma  to  be  left  free  to  retire  to  the  Con- 
vent of  Greccio. 

The  first  chapter  held  under  the  présidence  of  Bona- 
ventura,  in  the  extended  decisions  of  which  we  find  every- 
where tokens  of  his  influence,  assembled  at  Xarbonne  in 
1260.  He  was  then  commissioned  to  compose  a  new  life 
of  St.  Francis.1 

We  easily  understand  the  anxieties  to  which  this  de- 

1  Bon.,  3,  1.  At  the  same  chapter  were  collected  the  constitutions  of 
the  Order  according  to  edicts  of  the  preceding  chapters  ;  new  ones  were 
added  to  them  and  all  were  arranged.  In  the  first  of  the  twelve  rubrics 
the  chapter  prescribed  that,  upon  the  publication  of  the  account,  all  the 
old  constitutions  should  be  destroyed.  The  text  was  published  in  the 
Firmamentum  trium  ordinum,  f:  7b,  and  restored  lately  by  Father 
Ehrle:  Arc7iiv.,  t.  vi.  (1891),  in  his  beautiful  work  Die  cUtesten  Redac- 
tion en  der  Gcneral-MJistitiitinnen  des  Franziskanvortlens.  Cf.  Sjoeculum 
Morin,  fo,  195b  of  tract,  iu. 


394 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


cision  of  the  Brothers  was  an  answer.  The  number  of 
legends  had  greatly  increased,  for  besides  those  which  we 
have  first  studied  or  noted  there  were  others  in  existence 
which  have  completely  disappeared,  and  it  had  become 
equally  difficult  for  the  Brothers  who  went  forth  on  mis- 
sions either  to  make  a  choice  between  them  or  to  carry 
them  all. 

The  course  of  the  new  historian  was  therefore  clearly 
marked  out  :  he  must  do  the  work  of  compiler  and  peace- 
maker. He  failed  in  neither.  His  book  is  a  true  sheaf, 
or  rather  it  is  a  millstone  under  which  the  indefatigable 
author  has  pressed,  somewhat  at  hazard,  the  sheaves  of 
his  predecessors.  Most  of  the  time  he  inserts  them  just 
as  they  are,  confining  himself  to  the  work  of  harvesting 
them  and  weeding  out  the  tares. 

Therefore,  when  we  reach  the  end  of  this  voluminous 
work  we  have  a  very  vague  impression  of  St.  Francis. 
We  see  that  he  was  a  saint,  a  very  great  saint,  since  he 
performed  an  innumerable  quantity  of  miracles,  great 
and  small  ;  but  we  feel  very  much  as  if  we  had  been  go- 
ing through  a  shop  of  objects  of  piety.  All  these  statues, 
whether  they  are  called  St.  Anthony  the  Abbot,  St. 
Dominic,  St.  Theresa,  or  St.  Vincent  de  Paul,  have  the 
same  expression  of  mincing  humility,  of  a  somewhat 
shallow  ecstasy.  These  are  saints,  if  you  please,  miracle- 
workers  ;  they  are  not  men  ;  he  who  made  them  made 
them  by  rule,  by  process  ;  he  has  put  nothing  of  his 
heart  in  these  ever-bowed  foreheads,  these  lips  with  their 
wan  smile. 

God  forbid  that  I  should  say  or  think  that  St.  Bona- 
ventura  was  not  worthy  to  write  a  life  of  St.  Francis, 
but  the  circumstances  controlled  his  work,  and  it  is  no 
injustice  to  him  to  say  that  it  is  fortunate  for  Francis, 
and  especially  for  us,  that  we  have  another  biography  of 
the  Poverello  than  that  of  the  Seraphic  Doctor. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


395 


Three  years  after,  in  1263,  he  brought  his  completed 
work  to  the  chapter-general  convoked  under  his  prési- 
dence at  Pisa.    It  was  there  solemnly  approved.1 

It  is  impossible  to  say  whether  they  thought  that  the 
presence  of  the  new  legend  would  suffice  to  put  the  old 
ones  out  of  mind,  but  it  seems  that  at  this  time  nothing 
was  said  about  the  latter. 

It  was  not  so  at  the  following  chapter.  This  one,  held 
at  Paris,  came  to  a  decision  destined  to  have  disastrous 
results  for  the  primitive  Franciscan  documents.  This 
decree,  emanating  from  an  assembly  presided  over  by 
Bonaventura  in  person,  is  too  important  not  to  be  quoted 
textually  :  "  Item,  the  Chapter-general  ordains  on  obedi- 
ence that  all  the  legends  of  the  Blessed  Francis  formerly 
made  shall  be  destroyed.  The  Brothers  who  shall  find 
any  without  the  Order  must  try  to  make  away  with  them 
since  the  legend  made  by  the  General  is  compiled  from 
accounts  of  three  who  almost  always  accompanied  the 
Blessed  Francis  ;  all  that  they  could  certainly  know  and 
all  that  is  proven  has  been  carefully  inserted  therein." 2 

1  Tlie  Legenda  Elinor  of  Bonaventura  was  also  approved  at  this  time  ; 
it  is  simply  an  abridgment  of  the  Legenda  Major  arranged  for  nse  of  the 
choir  on  the  festival  of  St.  Francis  and  its  octave. 

-  Item  prœcipit  Générale cwpUulum per  obedientiam  quod  omnes  legenda 
de  B.  Francisco  olim  facto  deleantur  et  ubi  invenin  poterant  extra  or di- 
nem  ipsas  fratres  studeant  amovere,  cum  ilia  legenda  quœ  facta  est  per 
Generalem  sit  compilata  prout  ipse  Ttabuit  ab  ore  Ulorura  qui  cum  B. 
Francisco  quasi  semper  fuerunt  et  cuncta  certitudinaliter  sciverint  et  pro- 
bata ibi  sint  posita  diligenter.^  This  precious  text  has  been  found  and 
published  by  Father  Rinaldi  in  his  preface  to  the  text  of  Celano*.  Sera- 
phici  mri  Francisci  vitœ  duœ,  p.  xi.  Wadding  seems  to  have  known  of 
it,  at  least  indirectly,  for  he  says:  "  TJtramque  Historiam,  longiorem  et 
breoiorem,  dbtulit  (Bonaventura)  triennio  post  in  cornitzis  Pisanis patribus 
Ordinù,  quas  reverentur  cum  gratia/rum  actione,  supeessis  aliis  qtji- 
busque  LEGETsDis,  ADMISERUXT.  "  Ad  ann.,  1260,  no.  18.  Cf.  Ehrle, 
Zeitschrift  f  ur  hath.  Theol.,  t  vii.  (1883),  p.  386.—"  Communkaverat 
sanctus  Francisais  plurima  sociis  suis  etfratribus  antiquis,  que  oblmoni 
tradita  sunt,  turn  quia  que  scripta  erant  in  legenda  prima,  nova  édita  a 


39G 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


It  would  have  been  difficult  to  be  more  precise.  We  see 
the  perseverance  with  which  Bonaventura  carried  on  his 
struggle  against  the  extreme  parties.  This  decree  ex- 
plains the  almost  complete  disappearance  of  the  manu- 
scripts of  Celano  and  the  Three  Companions,  since  in 
certain  collections  even  those  of  Bonaventura's  legend 
are  hardly  to  be  found. 

As  we  have  seen,  Bonaventura  aimed  to  write  a  sort  of 
official  or  canonical  biography  ;  he  succeeded  only  too 
well.  Most  of  the  accounts  that  we  already  know  have 
gone  into  his  collection,  but  not  without  at  times  suffer- 
ing profound  mutilations.  We  are  not  surprised  to  find 
him  passing  over  Francis's  youth  with  more  discretion 
than  Celano  in  the  First  Life,  but  we  regret  to  find  him 
ornamenting  and  materializing  some  of  the  loveliest  inci- 
dents of  the  earlier  legends. 

It  is  not  enough  for  him  that  Francis  hears  the  cruci- 
fix of  St.  Damian  speak  ;  he  pauses  to  lay  stress  on  the 
assertion  that  he  heard  it  corporels  auribus  and  that  no 
one  was  in  the  chapel  at  that  moment  !  Brother  Mo- 
naldo  at  the  chapter  of  Aries  sees  St.  Francis  appear  cor- 
porels oculis.  He  often  abridges  his  predecessors,  but 
this  is  not  his  invariable  rule.  When  he  reaches  the 
account  of  the  stigmata  he  devotes  long  pages  to  it,1  re- 
lates a  sort  of  consultation  held  by  St.  Francis  as  to 
whether  he  could  conceal  them,  and  adds  several  miracles 
due  to  these  sacred  wounds  ;  further  on  he  returns  to  the 
subject  to  show  a  certain  Girolamo,  Knight  of  Assisi,  de- 
siring to  touch  with  his  hands  the  miraculous  nails.2  On 
the  other  hand,  he  uses  a  significant  discretion  wher- 
ever the  companions  of  the  Saint  are  in  question.  He 

fratre.  Bonaventura  deleta  et  destructa  sunt,  ipsojubente  turn  quia 
.    .    ."    Chronica  tribul.,  Arcliiv.,  t.  ii.,  p.  256. 

1  Bon.,  188-204. 

2  Bon.,  218. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


397 


names  only  three  of  the  first  eleven  disciples,1  and  no 
more  mentions  Brothers  Leo,  Angelo,  Bufino,  Masseo, 
than  their  adversary,  Brother  Elias. 

As  to  the  incidents  which  we  find  for  the  first  time  in 
this  collection,  they  hardly  make  us  regret  the  unknown 
sources  which  must  have  been  at  the  service  of  the  famous 
Doctor  ;  it  would  appear  that  the  healing  of  Morico,  re- 
stored to  health  by  a  few  pellets  of  bread  soaked  in  the 
oil  of  the  lamp  which  burned  before  the  altar  of  the  Vir- 
gin,2 has  little  more  importance  for  the  life  of  St.  Fran- 
cis than  the  story  of  the  sheep  given  to  Giacomina  di 
Settesoli  which  awakened  its  mistress  to  summon  her  to 
go  to  mass.3  What  shall  we  think  of  that  other  sheep,  of 
Portiuncula,  which  hastened  to  the  choir  whenever  it 
heard  the  psalmody  of  the  friars,  and  kneeled  devoutly 
for  the  elevation  of  the  Holy  Sacrament  ?  4 

All  these  incidents,  the  list  of  which  might  be  en- 
larged,5 betrays  the  working-over  of  the  legend.  St. 
Francis  becomes  a  great  thaumaturgist,  but  his  physiog- 
nomy loses  its  originality. 

The  greatest  fault  of  this  work  is,  in  fact,  the  vagueness 
of  the  figure  of  the  Saint.  "While  in  Celano  there  are 
the  large  lines  of  a  soul-history,  a  sketch  of  the  affecting 
drama  of  a  man  who  attains  to  the  conquest  of  himself, 
with  Bonaventura  all  this  interior  action  disappears  be- 
fore divine  interventions  ;  his  heart  is,  so  to  speak,  the 
geometrical  locality  of  a  certain  number  of  visitants  ;  he 
is  a  passive  instrument  in  the  hands  of  God,  and  we 
really  cannot  see  why  he  should  have  been  chosen  rather 
than  another. 

1  Bernardo  (Bon.,  28),  Egidio  (Bon.,  29),  and  Silrestro  (Bon.,  30) 
=  Bon.,  49. 

3  Bon.,  112. 

4  Bon.,  111. 

5  Tide  Bon.,  115  ;  90.  etc.  M.  Tliode  "has  enumerated  the  stories  re- 
lating especially  to  Bonaventura  :  {Franz  wn  Assisi,  p.  535). 


398 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


And  yet  Bonaventura  was  an  Italian  ;  lie  had  seen 
Umbria  ;  lie  must  have  knelt  and  celebrated  the  sacred 
mysteries  in  Portiimcula,  that  cradle  of  the  noblest  of  re- 
ligious reformations  ;  he  had  conversed  with  Brother 
Egidio,  and  must  have  heard  from  his  lips  an  echo  of  the 
first  Franciscan  fervor  ;  but,  alas  !  nothing  of  that  rapture 
passed  into  his  book,  and  if  the  truth  must  be  told,  I 
find  it  quite  inferior  to  much  later  documents,  to  the 
Fioretti,  for  example  ;  for  they  understood,  at  least  in 
part,  the  soul  of  Francis  ;  they  felt  the  throbbing  of  that 
heart,  with  all  its  sensitiveness,  admiration,  indulgence, 
love,  independence,  and  absence  of  carefulness. 

X.  De  Laudibus  of  Bernard  of  Besse  1 

Bonaventura's  work  did  not  discourage  the  biogra- 
phers. The  historic  value  of  their  labor  is  almost  noth- 
ing, and  we  shall  not  even  attempt  to  catalogue  them. 

Bernard  of  Besse,  a  native  probably  of  the  south  of 
France 2  and  secretary  of  Bonaventura,3  made  a  summary 
of  the  earlier  legends.  This  work,  which  brings  us  no 
authentic  historic  indication,  is  interesting  only  for  the 
care  with  which  the  author  has  noted  the  places  where 

1  Manuscript  1,  ivr. ,  33,  of  the  library  of  the  University  of  Turin.  It 
is  a  4to  upon  parchment  of  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century,  124  ff. 
It  comprises  first  the  biography  of  St.  Francis  by  St.  Bonaventura  and 
a  legend  of  St.  Clara,  afterwards  at  f°  95  the  De  laudibus.  The  text 
will  soon  be  published  in  the  Aiudecta  franciscana  of  the  Franciscans 
of  Quaracchi,  near  Florence. 

2  In  reading  it  we  quickly  discover  that  he  was  specially  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  convents  of  the  Province  of  Aquitania,  and  noted  with 
care  everything  that  concerned  them. 

3  Wadding,  aim.  1230,  no.  7.  Many  passages  prove  at  least  that  he  ac- 
companied Bonaventura  in  his  travels  :  "  Hoc  enim  (the  special  aid  of 
Brother  Egidio)^  us  quœ  ad  bonum  aniniœ  pertinent  devotus  Generalise 
Cardinalis  predictus  .  .  .  nos  docuiC  Fù  96a.  Jamdudum  ego 
per  Theutordœ  partes  et  Flandriœ  cum  Ministro  transiens  Gencrali. 
Ibid.,  f  106a. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


399 


repose  the  Brothers  who  died  in  odor  of  sanctity,  and  re- 
lates a  mass  of  visions  all  tending  to  prove  the  excellence 
of  the  Order.1 

Still  the  publication  of  this  document  will  perform  the 
valuable  office  of  throwing  a  little  light  upon  the  difficult 
question  of  the  sources.  Several  passages  of  the  De 
laudibus  appear  again  textually  in  the  Speculum,2  and 
as  a  single  glance  is  enough  to  show  that  the  Speculum 
did  not  copy  the  De  laudibus,  it  must  be  that  Bernard 
of  Besse  had  before  him  a  copy,  if  not  of  the  Speculum 
at  least  of  a  document  of  the  same  kind. 


HI 

DIPLOMATIC  DOCUMENTS 

In  this  category  we  place  all  the  acts  having  a  char- 
acter of  public  authenticity,  particularly  those  which 
were  drawn  up  by  the  pontifical  cabinet. 

This  source  of  information,  where  each  document  has 
its  date,  is  precisely  the  one  which  has  been  most 
neglected  up  to  this  time. 

1  Bernard  de  Besse  is  the  author  of  many  other  writings,  notably  an 
important  Catalogus  Ministrorum  generalium  published  after  the  Turin 
manuscript  by  Father  Ehrle  (Zeitschrift  fur  hath.  Theol.,  t.  vii.,  pp. 
338-352),  with  a  very  remarkable  critical  introduction  (ib.,  pp.  323-337). 
Cf.  Archiv  fur  Lilt.  u.  Kirchg.,  i.,  p.  145.  —  Bartolommeo  di  Pisa, 
when  writing  his  Conformities,  had  before  him  a  part  of  his  works,  f° 
148b,  2  ;  126a,  1  ;  but  he  calls  the  author  sometimes  Bernardus  de 
Blesa,  then  again  Johannes  de  Blesa.  See  also  Mark  of  Lisbon,  t.  ii,, 
p.  212,  and  Hauréau,  Notices  et  extraits,  t.  vi.,  p.  153. 

2  "  Denique  primos  Francisci  xn.  discipulos    .    .    .    oranes  sanctos  ' 
fuisse  audidmus  jrreter  unum  qui  Ordinem  exiens  leprosus  f actus  laqueo 
tel  alter  Judas  inieriit,  ne  Francisco  cum  Christo  vel  in  discipulis  simili- 
tudo  deficeret"  î  90a. 


400 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


L  Donation  of  the  Veiina 

The  Instrument  um  donationis  Montis  Alvernœ,  a  notarial 
document  preserved  in  the  archives  of  Borgo  San  Se- 
polcro,1  not  only  gives  the  name  of  the  generous  friend 
of  Francis,  and  many  picturesque  details,  but  it  fixes 
with  precision  a  date  all  the  more  important  because 
it  occurs  in  the  most  obscure  period  of  the  Saint's  life. 
It  was  on  May  8, 1213,  that  Orlando  dei  Catani,  Count 
of  Chiiisi  in  Casentino,  gave  the  Verna  to  Brother 
Francis. 

II.  Registers  of  Cardinal  Ugolini 

The  documents  of  the  pontifical  chancellery  addressed 
to  Cardinal  Ugolini,  the  future  Gregory  IX.,  and  those 
which  emanate  from  the  hand  of  the  latter  during  his  long 
journeys  as  apostolic  legate,2  are  of  first  rate  importance. 

It  would  be  too  long  to  give  even  a  simple  enumera- 
tion of  them.  Those  which  mark  important  facts  have 
been  carefully  indicated  in  the  course  of  this  work.  It 
will  suffice  to  say  that  by  bringing  together  these  two 
series  of  documents,  and  interposing  the  dates  of  the 
papal  bulls  countersigned  by  Ugolini,  we  are  able  to 
follow  almost  day  by  day  this  man,  who  was,  perhaps 
without  even  excepting  St.  Francis,  the  one  whose  will 

1  It  was  published  by  Sbaralea,  Bull.,  t.  iv.,  p.  156,  note  h.  This  act 
was  drawn  up  July  9,  1274,  at  a  time  when  the  son  of  Orlando  as  well 
as  the  Brothers  Minor  desired  to  authenticate  the  donation,  which  until 
then  had  been  verbal. 

2  See  Registri  dei  Gardinali  Ugolino  cVOstia  e  Ottariano  degli  TJbal- 
dini  pubblicati  a  cura  di  Guido  Levi  dalVIstituto  storico  italiano. — Fonti 
per  la  storia  d' Italia,  Roma,  1890,  1  vol.,  4to,  xxviii.  and  250  pp.  This 
edition  follows  the  manuscript  of  the  National  Library,  Paris  :  Ancien 
fonds  Colbert  lat.,  5152A.  We  must  draw  attention  to  a  very  beauti- 
ful work  due  also  to  Mr.  G.  Levi  :  Documenti  ad  illustradone  del  Re- 
gistro  del  Card.  Ugolino,  in  the  Archido  ddla  societa  Romana  di  storia 
vatria,  t.  xii.  (1889),  pp.  241-32G. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


401 


most  profoundly  fashioned  the  Franciscan  institute.  We 
see  also  the  pre-eminent  part  which  the  Order  had  from 
the  beginning  in  the  interest  of  the  future  pontiff,  and 
we  arrive  at  perfect  accuracy  as  to  the  dates  of  his  meet- 
ings with  St.  Francis. 

III.  Bulls 

The  pontifical  bulls  concerning  the  Franciscans  were 
collected  and  published  in  the  last  century  by  the  monk 
Sbaralea.1  But  from  these  we  gain  little  help  for  the 
history  of  the  origins  of  the  Order.2 

The  following  is  a  compendious  list  ;  the  details  have 
been  given  in  the  course  of  the  work  : 

No.  1.  August  18, 1218. — Bull  Literœ  tuce  addressed  to 
Ugolini.  The  pope  permits  him  to  accept  donations  of 
landed  property  in  behalf  of  women  fleeing  the  world 

1  Bullarium  franciscanum  seu  Rom.  Pontificum  constitution  es  epistolœ 
diplomata  ordinibus  Minorum,  Clarissarwn  et  Pœnitentium  concessa, 
edidit  Joli.  Hyac.  Sbaralea  ord.  mm.  conv.,  4  vols.,  fol.,  Rome,  t.  i. 
(1759),  t.  ii.  (1761),  t.  iii.  (1763),  t.  iv.,  {1768).— Supplementum  ab  An- 
nibale  de  Latera  ord.  min.  obs.  Romœ,  1780. — Sbaralea  had  a  compara- 
tively easy  task,  because  of  the  number  of  collections  made  before  his. 
I  shall  mention  only  one  of  those  which  I  have  before  me.  It  is,  com- 
paratively, very  well  done,  and  appears  to  have  escaped  the  researches 
of  the  Franciscan  bibliographers  :  Singularissimum  eximiumque  opus  uni- 
versis  mortalbus  sacratissimi  ordinis  seraphici  patrù  nos'ri  Francisci  a 
Domino  Jesu  mirabili  modo  approbati  necnon  a  quampluribus  nostri 
Redemptoris  sanctissimis  vicariis  romanis  pontificabus  multipharie  de- 
clarati  notitiam  liabere  cupientibus  prof ecto  per  necessarium.  Speculum 
Minorum  .  .  .  per  Martinum  Morin  .  .  .  Rouen,  1509.  It  is 
8vo,  with  numbered  folios,  printed  with  remarkable  care.  It  contains 
besides  the  bulls  the  principal  dissertations  upon  the  Rule,  elaborated 
in  the  thirteenth  century,  and  a  Memoriale  ordinis  ("first  part,  f°  60-82), 
a  kind  of  catalogue  of  the  ministers-general,  which  would  have  pre- 
vented many  of  the  errors  of  the  historians,  if  it  had  been  known. 

2  The  Bollandists  themselves  have  entirely  overlooked  those  sources 
of  information,  thinking,  upon  the  authority  of  a  single  badly  inter- 
preted passage,  that  the  Order  had  not  obtained  a  single  bull  before  the 
solemn  approval  of  Honorius  III.,  November  29,  1223. 

26 


402 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


(Clarisses)  and  to  declare  that  these  monasteries  are 
holden  by  the  Apostolic  See. 

No.  2.  "  June  11, 1219— Gum  delecti  filii.  This  bull,  ad- 
dressed in  a  general  way  to  all  prelates,  is  a  sort  of  safe 
conduct  for  the  Brothers  Minor. 

No.  3.  December  19,  1219.  —  Sacrosaneta  romana. 
Privileges  conceded  to  the  Sisters  (Clarisses)  of  Monti- 
celli,  near  Florence. 

No.  4.  May  29, 1220. — Pro  dilectis.  The  pope  prays 
the  prelates  of  France  to  give  a  kindly  reception  to  the 
Brothers  Minor. 

No.  5.  September  22, 1220. — Cum  secundum.  Hono- 
rius  III.  prescribes  a  year  of  noviciate  before  the  entry 
into  the  Order. 

No.  6.  December  9,  1220. — Gonstitutus  in  prcesentia. 
This  bull  concerns  a  priest  of  Constantinople  who  had 
made  a  vow  to  enter  the  Order.  As  there  is  question 
here  of  frater  Lucas  Magister  fratrum  Minorem  de  parti- 
bus  Romanice  we  have  here  indirect  testimony,  all  the 
more  precious  for  that  reason,  as  to  the  period  of  the 
establishment  of  the  Order  in  the  Orient. 

No.  7.  February  13,  1221. — New  bull  for  the  same 
priest. 

No.  8.  December  16,  1221. — Significatum  est  nobis. 
Honorius  III.  recommends  to  the  Bishop  of  Biinini  to 
protect  the  Brothers  of  Penitence  (Third  Order). 

No.  9.  March  22,  1222. 1 — Devotionis  vestrœ.  Conces- 
sion to  the  Franciscans,  under  certain  conditions,  to  cele- 
brate the  offices  in  times  of  interdict. 

No.  10.  March  29, 1222.— Ex  parte  Universitalis.  Mis- 
sion given  to  the  Dominicans,  Franciscans,  and  Brothers 
of  the  Troops  of  San  Iago  in  Lisbon. 

1  And  not  March  29.  as  Sbaralea  has  it.  The  original,  which  I  have 
had  under  my  eyes  in  the  archives  of  Assisi,  bears  in  fact  :  Datum 
Anagnie  XL  Kal.  aprilis  pontijkatns  nostrianno  sexto. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


403 


Nos.  11,  12,  and  13.— September  19,  1222.— Saero- 
sancta  Bomana.  Privileges  for  the  monasteries  (Claris- 
ses)  of  Lucca,  Sienna,  and  Perugia. 

No.  14.  November  29,  1223.—  Solet  annuere.  Solemn 
approbation  of  the  Rule,  which  is  inserted  in  the  bull. 

No.  15.  December  18,  1223. — Fratrum  Minorum. 
Concerns  apostates  from  the  Order. 

No.  16.  December  1. 1224. — Cum  Riorum.  Authoriza- 
tion given  to  the  Brothers  of  Penitence  to  take  part  in  the 
offices  in  times  of  interdict,  etc. 

No.  17.  December  3,  1224. — Quia  populares  tumultus. 
Concession  of  the  portable  altar. 

No.  18.  August  28, 1225. — In  Mis.  Honorius  explains 
to  the  Bishop  of  Paris  and  the  Archbishop  of  Bheims 
the  true  meaning  of  the  privileges  accorded  to  the 
Brothers  Minor. 

No.  19.  October  7, 1225.—  Vineae  Domini.  This  bull 
contains  divers  authorizations  in  favor  of  the  Brothers 
who  are  going  to  evangelize  Morocco. 

This  list  includes  only  those  of  Sbaralea's  bulls  which 
may  directly  or  indirectly  throw  some  light  upon  the  life 
of  St.  Francis  and  his  institute.  Sbaralea's  nomencla- 
ture is  surely  incomplete  and  should  be  revised  when  the 
Registers  of  Honorius  III.  shall  have  been  published  in 
fulL1 

1  The  Abbé  Horoy  has  indeed  published  in  five  volumes  what  he  en- 
titles the  Opera  omnia  of  Honorius  III.,  but  he  omits,  without  a  word  of 
explanation,  a  great  number  of  letters,  certain  of  which  are  brought  for- 
ward in  the  well-known  collection  of  Potthast.  The  Abbé  Pietro  Pres- 
suti  has  undertaken  to  publish  a  compendium  of  all  the  bulls  of  this 
pope  according  to  the  original  Registers  of  the  Vatican.  I  regesti  del 
Ponlifice  Onorio  HI.  Boma,  t.  i.,  1884.  Volume  i.  only  has  as  yet 
appeared. 


404 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


IV 

CHRONICLERS  OF  THE  ORDER 
I.  Chronicle  of  Brother  Giordano  di  Giano  1 

Born  at  Giano,  in  Umbria,  in  the  mountainous  district 
which  closes  the  southern  horizon  of  Assisi,  Brother 
Giordano  was  in  1221  one  of  the  twenty-six  friars  who, 
under  the  conduct  of  Caasar  of  Speyer,  set  out  for  Ger- 
many. He  seems  to  have  remained  attached  to  this  prov- 
ince until  his  death,  even  when  most  of  the  friars,  espe- 
cially those  who  held  cures,  had  been  transferred,  often 
to  a  distance  of  several  months'  journey,  from  one  end  of 
Europe  to  the  other.  It  is  not,  then,  surprising  that  he 
was  often  prayed  to  commit  his  memories  to  writing.  He 
dictated  them  to  Brother  Baldwin  of  Brandenburg  in  the 
spring  of  1262.  He  must  have  done  it  with  joy,  having 
long  before  prepared  himself  for  the  task.  He  relates 
with  artless  simplicity  how  in  1221,  at  the  chapter-gen- 
eral of  Portiuncula,  he  went  from  group  to  group  question- 
ing as  to  their  names  and  country  the  Brothers  who  were 
going  to  set  out  on  distant  missions,  that  he  might  be 
able  to  say  later,  especially  if  they  came  to  suffer  mar- 
tyrdom :  "  I  knew  them  myself  !  "  2 

1  Chronica  fratris  Jordani  a  Giano.  The  text  was  published  for  the 
first  time  in  1870  by  Dr.  G.  Voigt  under  the  title  :  "  Die  Denkic'àrdig- 
keiten  des  Minoriten  Jordanus  von  Giano  in  the  Abhandlungen  derphilo- 
log.  histor.  Cl.  der  Kônigl.  sàchsischen  Gesellschaft  der  Wissenschaften" 
pp.  421-545,  Leipsic,  by  Hirzel,  1870.  Only  one  manuscript  is  known  ; 
it  is  in  the  royal  library  at  Berlin  (Manuscript,  theolog.  lat. ,  4to,  n.  196, 
sœc.  xiv.,  foliorum  141).  It  has  served  as  the  base  of  the  second  edition  : 
Analecta  franciscana  she  Chronica  aliaque  documenta  ad  hisloriam  mi- 
norum  spectantia.  Ad  Claras  Aquas  {Quaracchi)  ex  typographia  col- 
legii  S.  Bonaventurœ,  1885,  t.  i.,  pp.  1-19.  Except  where  otherwise 
noted,  I  cite  entirely  this  edition,  in  which  is  preserved  the  division 
into  sixty -three  paragraphs  introduced  by  Dr.  Voigt. 

2  Giord.  .  81. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


4ÛO 


His  chronicle  bears  the  imprint  of  this  tendency. 
What  he  desires  to  describe  is  the  introduction  of  the 
Order  into  Germany  and  its  early  developments  there, 
and  he  does  it  by  enumerating,  with  a  complacency  which 
has  its  own  coquetry,  the  names  of  a  multitude  of  friars 1 
and  by  carefully  dating  the  events.  These  details,  tedious 
for  the  ordinary  reader,  are  precious  to  the  historian  ;  he 
sees  there  the  diverse  conditions  from  which  the  friars 
were  recruited,  and  the  rapidity  with  which  a  handful  of 
missionaries  thrown  into  an  unknown  country  were  able 
to  branch  out,  found  new  stations,  and  in  five  years  cover 
with  a  network  of  monasteries,  the  Tyrol,  Saxony,  Bavaria, 
Alsace,  and  the  neighboring  provinces. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  it  is  worth  while  to  test  Gior- 
dano's chronology,  for  he  begins  by  praying  the  reader  to 
forgive  the  errors  which  may  have  escaped  him  on  this 
head  ;  but  a  man  who  thus  marks  in  his  memory  what  he 
desires  later  to  tell  or  to  write  is  not  an  ordinary  witness. 

Reading  his  chronicle,  it  seems  as  if  we  were  listening 
to  the  recollections  of  an  old  soldier,  who  grasps  certain 
worthless  details  and  presents  them  with  an  extraordinary 
power  of  relief,  who  knows  not  how  to  resist  the  tempta- 
tion to  bring  himself  forward,  at  the  risk  sometimes  of 
slightly  embellishing  the  dry  reality.2 

In  fact  this  chronicle  swarms  with  anecdotes  somewhat 
personal,  but  very  artless  and  welcome,  and  which  on  the 
whole  carry  in  themselves  the  testimony  to  their  authen- 
ticity. The  perfume  of  the  Fioretti  already  exhales  from 
these  pages  so  full  of  candor  and  manliness  ;  we  can  fol- 
low the  missionaries  stage  by  stage,  then  when  they  are 
settled,  open  the  door  of  the  monastery  and  read  in  the 

1  He  names  more  than  twenty-four  persons. 

2  It  does  not  seem  to  me  that  we  can  look  upon  the  account  of  the  in- 
terview between  Gregory  IX.  and  Brother  Giordano  as  rigorously  accu- 
rate.   Giord.,  63. 


406 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


very  hearts  of  these  men,  many  of  whom  are  as  brave  as 
heroes  and  harmless  as  doves. 

It  is  true  that  this  chronicle  deals  especially  with  Ger- 
many, but  the  first  chapters  have  an  importance  for  Fran- 
cis's history  that  exceeds  even  that  of  the  biographers. 
Thanks  to  Giordano  of  Giano,  we  are  from  this  time  for- 
ward informed  upon  the  crises  which  the  institute  of 
Francis  passed  through  after  1219  ;  he  furnishes  us  the 
solidly  historical  base  which  seems  to  be  lacking  in  the 
documents  emanating  from  the  Spirituals,  and  corrobo- 
rates their  testimony. 

II.  Eccleston  :  Arrival  of  the  Friars  in  England  1 

Our  knowledge  of  Thomas  of  Eccleston  is  very  slight, 
for  he  has  left  no  more  trace  of  himself  in  the  history  of 
the  Order  than  of  Simon  of  Esseby,  to  whom  he  dedicates 
his  work.  A  native  no  doubt  of  Yorkshire,  he  seems 
never  to  have  quitted  England.  He  was  twenty-five 
years  gathering  the  materials  of  his  wx>rk,  which  em- 
braces the  course  of  events  from  1224  almost  to  1260. 
The  last  facts  that  he  relates  belong  to  years  very  near  to 
this  date. 

Of  almost  double  the  length  of  that  of  Giordano,  Eccles- 
ton's  work  is  far  from  furnishing  as  interesting  reading. 
The  former  had  seen  nearly  everything  that  he  described, 
and  thence  resulted  a  vigor  in  his  story  that  we  cannot 

1  Liber  de  adrentu  Minorum  in  Angliam  ,  published  under  the  title  of 
Monumenta  Franciscana  (in  the  series  of  Rerum  Britannicarum  medii 
JEH  scriptores,  Boll  series)  in  two  volumes,  8vo  ;  the  first  through  the 
care  of  J.  S.  Brewer  (1858),  the  second  through  that  of  R.  Howlett 
(1882).  This  text  is  reproduced  without  the  scientific  dress  of  the  Ana- 
lecta  franciscana ,  t.  i. ,  pp.  217-257.  Cf.  English  Historical  Review,  v. 
(1890),  754.  He  has  published  an  excellent  critical  edition  of  it,  but 
unfortunately  partial,  in  vol.  xxviii.,  Scriptorum ,  of  the  Monumenta 
Germaniœ  Historica  by  Mr.  Liebermann,  Hanover,  1888,  folio,  pp.  5G0- 
569. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES  407 


find  in  an  author  who  writes  on  the  testimony  of  others. 
More  than  this,  while  Giordano  follows  a  chronological 
order,  Eccleston  has  divided  his  incidents  under  fifteen 
rubrics,  in  which  the  same  people  continually  reappear  in 
a  confusion  which  at  length  becomes  very  wearisome. 
Finally,  his  document  is  amazingly  partial  :  the  author  is 
not  content  with  merely  proving  that  the  English  friars 
are  saints  ;  he  desires  to  show  that  the  province  of  Eng- 
land surpasses  all  others  1  by  its  fidelity  to  the  Rule  and 
its  courage  against  the  upholders  of  new  ways,  Brother 
Elias  in  particular. 

But  these  few  faults  ought  not  to  make  us  lose  sight  of 
the  true  value  of  this  document.  It  embraces  what  we 
may  call  the  heroic  period  of  the  Franciscan  movement 
in  England,  and  describes  it  with  extreme  simplicity. 

Aside  from  all  question  of  history,  we  have  here  enough 
to  interest  all  those  who  are  charmed  by  the  spectacle  of 
moral  conquest.  On  Monday,  September  10th,  the 
Brothers  Minor  landed  at  Dover.  They  were  nine  in 
number  :  a  priest,  a  deacon,  two  who  had  only  the  lesser 
Orders,  and  five  laymen.  They  visited  Canterbury, 
London,  Oxford,  Cambridge,  Lincoln,  and  less  than  ten 
months  later  all  who  have  made  their  mark  in  the  history 
of  science  or  of  sanctity  had  joined  them  ;  it  may  suf- 
fice to  name  Adam  of  Marisco,  Richard  of  Cornwall, 
Bishop  Robert  Grossetête,  one  of  the  proudest  and  pu- 
rest figures  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  Roger  Bacon,  that 
persecuted  monk  who  several  centuries  before  his  time 
grappled  with  and  answered  in  his  lonely  cell  the  prob- 
lems of  authority  and  method,  with  a  firmness  and  power 
which  the  sixteenth  century  would  find  it  hard  to  sur- 
pass. 

1  Eccl.,  11  ;  13  ;  14  ;  15.  Cf.  Eccl  ,  14,  where  tlie  author  takes  pains 
to  say  that  Alberto  of  Pisa  died  at  Rome,  surrounded  by  English  Brothers 
"  inter  Anglicos" 


408 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


It  is  impossible  that  in  such  a  movement  human  weak- 
nesses and  passions  should  not  here  and  there  reveal 
themselves,  but  we  owe  our  chronicler  thanks  for  not 
hiding  them.  Thanks  to  him,  we  can  for  a  moment  for- 
get the  present  hour,  call  to  life  again  that  first  Cam- 
bridge chapel— so  slight  that  it  took  a  carpenter  only  one 
day  to  build  it — listen  to  three  Brothers  chanting  matins 
that  same  night,  and  that  with  so  much  ardor  that  one  of 
them — so  rickety  that  his  two  companions  were  obliged  to 
carry  him — wept  for  joy  :  in  England  as  in  Italy  the 
Franciscan  gospel  was  a  gospel  of  peace  and  joy.  Moral 
ugliness  inspired  them  with  a  pity  which  we  no  longer 
know.  There  are  few  historic  incidents  finer  than  that  of 
Brother  Geoffrey  of  Salisbury  confessing  Alexander  of 
Bissingburn  ;  the  noble  penitent  was  performing  this 
duty  without  attention,  as  if  he  were  telling  some  sort  of 
a  story;  suddenly  his  confessor  melted  into  tears,  making 
him  blush  with  shame  and  forcing  tears  also  from  him, 
working  in  him  so  complete  a  revolution  that  he  begged 
to  be  taken  into  the  Order. 

The  most  interesting  parts  are  those  where  Thomas 
gives  us  an  intimate  view  of  the  friars  :  here  drinking 
their  beer,  there  hastening,  in  spite  of  the  Eule,  to  buy 
some  on  credit  for  two  comrades  who  have  been  mal- 
treated, or  again  clustering  about  Brother  Solomon,  who 
had  just  come  in  nearly  frozen  with  cold,  and  whom  they 
could  not  succeed  in  warming — sicut  jDorcis  mos  est  cam 
comprimenclo  foverunt,  says  the  pious  narrator.1  All  this 
is  mingled  with  dreams,  visions,  numberless  apparitions,2 
which  once  more  show  us  how  different  were  the  ideas 
most  familiar  to  the  religious  minds  of  the  thirteenth 
century  from  those  which  haunt  the  brains  and  hearts  of 
to-day. 

The  information  given  by  Eccleston  bears  only  indi- 

1  Eccl.,  4,  12.  2  Eccl.  4  ;  5  ;  6  ;  7  ;  10  ;  12  ;  13  ;  14  ;  15. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


409 


rectly  on  this  book,  but  if  he  speaks  little  of  Francis  he 
speaks  much  at  length  of  some  of  the  men  who  have  been 
most  closely  mingled  with  his  life. 

m.  Chronicle  of  Fra  Salimbeni  1 

As  celebrated  as  it  is  little  known,  this  chronicle  is  of 
quite  secondary  value  in  all  that  concerns  the  life  of  St. 
Francis.  Its  author,  born  October  9,  1221,  entered  the 
Order  in  1238,  and  wrote  his  memoirs  in  1282-1287  ;  it  is 
therefore  especially  for  the  middle  years  of  the  thirteenth 
century  that  his  importance  is  capital.  Notwithstanding 
this,  it  is  surprising  how  small  a  place  the  radiant  figure 
of  the  master  holds  in  these  long  pages,  and  this  very 
fact  shows,  better  than  long  arguments  could  do,  how 
profound  was  the  fall  of  the  Franciscan  idea. 

IV.  The  Chronicle  of  the  Tribulations  by  Angelo  Careno  2 

This  chronicle  was  written  about  1330  ;  we  might 
therefore  be  surprised  to  see  it  appear  among  the  sources 

1  It  was  published,  "but  with  many  suppressions,  in  1857,  at  Parma. 
The  Franciscans  of  Quaracchi  prepared  a  new  edition  of  it,  which  ap- 
peared in  the  Analecta  Fracniscana.  This  work  is  in  manuscript  in 
the  Vatican  under  no.  7260.  Vide  Ehile.  Zeitschrift  f  ur  Tcath.  TJieol. 
(18:3),  t.  vit,  pp.  767  and  768.  The  work  of  Mr.  Clédat  will  be  read 
with  interest  :  De  fratre  Salemhene  et  de  ejus  chronicœ  auctoritate , 
Paris.  4to,  1877,  with  fac  simile. 

2  Father  Ehrle  has  published  it.  but  unfortunately  not  entire,  in 
the  Arcliix.,  t.  ii. ,  pp.  125-155,  text  of  the  close  of  the  fifth  and  of  the 
sixth  tribulation  ;  pp.  256-327  text  of  the  third,  of  the  fourth,  and  of 
the  commencement  of  the  fifth.  He  has  added  to  it  introductions  and 
critical  notes.  For  the  parts  not  published  I  will  cite  the  text  of  the 
Laurentian  manuscript  (Plut.  20,  cod.  7),  completed  where  possible  with 
the  Italian  version  in  the  National  Library  at  Florence  (Magliabecchina, 
xxxvii.-28).  See  also  an  article  of  Professor  Tocco  in  the  ArcTdcio  sto- 
rico  italiano,  t.  xvii.  (1886),  pp.  12-36  and  243-61,  and  one  of  Mr.  Eich- 
ard"s  :  Library  of  the  École  des  chartes,  1884,  5th  livr.  p.  525.  Cf. 
Tocco,  the  Eresia  nel  medio  Evo,  p.  419  ff.    As  to  the  text  published  by 


410 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FPvA"NCIS 


to  be  consulted  for  the  life  of  St.  Francis,  dead  more 
than  a  century  before;  but  the  picture  which  Clareno 
gives  us  of  the  early  days  of  the  Order  gains  its  impor- 
tance from  the  fact  that  in  sketching  it  he  made  con- 
stant appeal  to  eye-witnesses,  and  precisely  to  those 
whose  works  have  disappeared. 

Angelo  Clareno,  earlier  called  Pietro  da  Fossombrone 1 
from  the  name  of  his  native  town,  and  sometimes  da 
Cingoli,  doubtless  from  the  little  convent  where  he  made 
profession,  belonged  to  the  Zelanti  of  the  March  of 
Ancona  as  early  as  1265.  Hunted  and  persecuted  by 
his  adversaries  during  his  whole  life,  he  died  in  the 
odor  of  sanctity  June  15,  1339,  in  the  little  hermitage 
of  Santa  Maria  d'  Aspro  in  the  diocese  of  Marsico  in 
Basilicata. 

Thanks  to  published  documents,  we  may  now,  so  to 
speak,  follow  day  by  day  not  only  the  external  circum- 
stances of  his  life,  but  the  inner  workings  of  his  soul. 
With  him  we  see  the  true  Franciscan  live  again,  one  of 
those  men  who,  while  desiring  to  remain  the  obedient 
son  of  the  Church,  cannot  reconcile  themselves  to  permit 
the  domain  of  the  dream  to  slip  away  from  them,  the 
ideal  which  they  have  hailed.  Often  they  are  on  the 
borders  of  heresy  ;  in  these  utterances  against  bad  priests 
and  unworthy  pontiffs  there  is  a  bitterness  which  the 
sectaries  of  the  sixteenth  century  will  not  exceed.2  Of- 
ten, too,  they  seem  to  renounce  all  authority  and  make 

Dollinger  in  his  Beitrdge  zur  SeTctengescliiclite  des  MUt-lalters,  Munich, 
1890,  2  vols.,  8vo,  II.  Theil  Dokumente,  pp.  417-427,  it  is  of  no  use.  It 
can  only  beget  errors,  as  it  abounds  with  gross  mistakes.  Whole  pages 
are  wanting. 

1  ArcMv.,  t.  iii.,  pp.  406-409. 

2  Vide  ArcMv.,  i.,  p.  557  ..."  Et  hoc  totvm  ex  rapacitate  et  ma- 
lignitate  luporum  pastorum  qui  voluerunt  esse  pastores,  sed  aperibus  ne- 
gaverunt  deum,"  et  seq.  Cf.,  p.  562:  "  Avaritia  et  symoniaca  7ieresis 
absque  pallio  régnât  et  fere  totum  invasit  ecclesie  corpus." 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


411 


final  appeal  to  the  inward  witness  of  the  Holy  Spirit  ; 1 
and  yet  Protestantism  would  be  mistaken  in  seeking  its 
ancestors  among  them.  No,  they  desired  to  die  as  they 
had  lived,  in  the  communion  of  that  Church  which  was 
as  a  stepmother  to  them  and  which  they  yet  loved  with 
that  heroic  passion  which  some  of  the  ci-devant  nobles 
brought  in  5 93  to  the  love  of  France,  governed  though 
she  was  by  Jacobins,  and  poured  out  their  blood  for  her. 

Clareno  and  his  friends  not  only  believed  that  Francis 
had  been  a  great  Saint,  but  to  this  conviction,  which  was 
also  that  of  the  Brothers  of  the  Common  Observance, 
they  added  the  persuasion  that  the  work  of  the  Stigma- 
tized could  only  be  continued  by  men  who  should  attain 
to  his  moral  stature,  to  which  men  might  arrive  through 
the  power  of  faith  and  love.  They  were  of  the  violent 
who  take  the  kingdom  of  heaven  by  force  ;  so  when,  after 
the  frivolous  and  senile  interests  of  every  day  we  come 
face  to  face  with  them,  we  feel  ourselves  both  humbled 
and  exalted,  for  we  suddenly  find  unhoped-for  poAvers, 
an  unrecognized  lyre  in  the  human  heart. 

There  is  one  of  Jesus's  apostles  of  whom  it  is  difficult 
not  to  think  while  reading  the  chronicle  of  the  Tribula- 
tions and  Angelo  Clareno's  correspondence  :  St.  John. 
Between  the  apostle's  words  about  love  and  those  of  the 
Franciscan  there  is  a  similarity  of  style  all  the  more 
striking  because  they  were  written  in  different  languages. 
In  both  of  these  the  soul  is  that  of  the  aged  man,  where 
all  is  only  love,  pardon,  desire  for  holiness,  and  yet  it 

1  "  Qui  excommunient  ethereticat  altissimam  evangelii  paujpertatem,  ex- 
communicatus  est  a  Deo  et  7iereticus  coram  Christo,  qui  est  eterna  et  in  com- 
mutaMUs  Veritas."  Arch.,  i.,  p.  509.  "  Non  est  potestas  contra  chris- 
tum  Dominum  et  contra  evangelium."  Ib.  p.  560.  He  closes  one  of  his 
letters  with  a  sentence  of  a  mysticism  full  of  serenity,  and  which  lets  us 
see  to  the  bottom  of  the  hearts  of  the  Spiritual  Brothers.  "  Totum 
igitur  stvMnm  esse  debet  quod  unum  insejmrabiliter  simus  per  Franciscum 
in  (JhristoP    lb.,  p.  564. 


412 


LIFE  OF  ST.  F  RANCIS 


sometimes  wakes  with  a  sudden  thrill — like  that  which 
stirred  the  soul  of  the  seer  of  Patmos — of  indignation, 
wrath,  pity,  terror,  and  joy,  when  the  future  unveils  it- 
self and  gives  a  glimpse  of  the  close  of  the  great  trib- 
ulation. 

Clareno's  works,  then,  are  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the 
word  partisan  ;  the  question  is  whether  the  author  has 
designedly  falsified  the  facts  or  mutilated  the  texts.  To 
this  question  we  may  boldly  answer,  No.  He  commits 
errors,1  especially  in  his  earlier  pages,  but  they  are  not 
such  as  to  diminish  our  confidence. 

Like  a  good  Joachimite,  he  believed  that  the  Order 
would  have  to  traverse  seven  tribulations  before  its  final 
triumph.  The  pontificate  of  John  XXII.  marked,  he 
thought,  the  commencement  of  the  seventh  ;  he  set  him- 
self, then,  to  write,  at  the  request  of  a  friend,  the  history 
of  the  first  six.2 

His  account  of  the  first  is  naturally  preceded  by  an 
introduction,  the  purpose  of  which  is  to  exhibit  to  the 
reader,  taking  the  life  of  St.  Francis  as  a  framework,  the 
intention  of  the  latter  in  composing  the  Eule  and  dic- 
tating the  Will. 

Born  between  1240  and  1250,  Clareno  had  at  his  ser- 
vice the  testimony  of  several  of  the  first  disciples  ; 3  he 

1  For  example,  in  the  list  of  the  first  six  generals  of  the  Order. 

2  The  first  (1219-1226)  extends  from  the  departure  of  St.  Francis  for 
Egypt  up  to  his  death  ;  the  second  includes  the  generalate  of  Brother 
Elias  (1232-1239)  ;  the  third  that  of  Crescentius  (1244-1248)  ;  the  fourth 
that  of  Bona ventura  (1257-1274)  ;  the  fifth  commences  with  the  epoch 
of  the  council  of  Lyon  (1274)  and  extends  up  to  the  death  of  the  inquis- 
itor, Thomas  d'Aversa  (1204).    And  the  sixth  goes  from  1308  to  1323. 

3  "  Supererant  adhuc  multi  de  sociis  b.  Francisa  .  .  .  et  alii  non 
pauci  de  quibus  ego  vidi  et  ab  ipsis  audid  quœ  narro."  Laur.  Ms.,  cod. 
7,  pi.  xx.,  f°  24a  :  <k  Qui  passi  sunt  eam(tribulationemtertiam)  sodifun- 
datoris  fratres  Aegdius  et  Àngelus,  qui  supererant  me  audknte  referi- 
bant."  Laur.  Ms.,  f°  27b.  Cf.,  Italian  Ms.,  xxxvii.,  28,  Magliab.,  f°  138b. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES  413 


found  himself  in  relations  with  Angelo  di  Bieti,1  Egidio,2 
and  with  that  Brother  Giovanni,  companion  of  Egidio, 
mentioned  in  the  prologue  of  the  Legend  of  the  Three 
Companions.3 

His  chronicle,  therefore,  forms,  as  it  were  the  continua- 
tion of  that  legend.  The  members  of  the  little  circle 
of  Greccio  are  they  who  recommend  it  to  us  ;  it  has  also 
their  inspiration. 

But  writing  long  years  after  the  death  of  these  Broth- 
ers, Clareno  feels  the  need  of  supporting  himself  also  on 
written  testimony;  he  repeatedly  refers  to  the  four 
legends  from  which  he  borrows  a  part  of  his  narrative  ; 
they  are  those  of  Giovanni  di  Ceperano,  Thomas  of  Ce- 
lano,  Bonaventura,  and  Brother  Leo.4  Bonaventura's 
work  is  mentioned  only  by  way  of  reference  ;  Clareno 
borrows  nothing  from  him,  while  he  cites  long  passages 

1  The  date  of  his  death  is  unknown  ;  on  August  11,  1253,  he  was  pres- 
ent at  the  death-bed  of  St.  Clara. 

2  Died  April  23,  1261. 

3  "  Quern  (fratrem  Jacobum  de  Massa)  dirigente  mefratre  Johanne  socio 
fratris prefati  Egidii vklerelahoravi.  Hie  enim  f  rater  Johannes  .  .  . 
dixit  mild.    .    .    ."    Arch.,  ii.,  p.  379. 

4"  .  .  .  Tribulationes  preteritas  memoravi,  ut  audivi  ab  illis  qui 
sustinuerunt  eas  et  aliqua  commemoravi  de  Mis  que  didici  in  quatuor 
legendis  quas  vidi  et  legi."  Arch.,  ii.,  p.  135. — "Vitam  pauperis  et  hu- 
milis  viri  Dei  Francisci  triurn  ordinum  fundcttoris  quatuor  solemnes 
yersonœ  scripserunt,  fratres  videlicet  scientia  et  sanctitate  pmclari, 
Johannes  et  Tlwmas  de  Celano,  f rater  Bonaventura  unuspost  Beatum 
Franciscum  Generalis  Minister  et  vir  mirœ  simplicitatis  et  sanctitafis 
frater  Leo,  ejusdem  sancti  Francisci  socius.  Has  quatuor  descriptiones 
seu  h'storias  qui  legerit  .  .  .  "  Laurent.  MS.,  pi.  xx.,  c.  7,  î~  la. 
Did  the  Italian  translator  think  there  was  an  error  in  this  quotation  ?  I 
do  not  know,  but  he  suppressed  it.  At  f r  12a  of  manuscript  xxxvii., 
28,  of  the  Magliabeochina,  we  read  :  "  Incominciano  edeune  croniche  del 
ordine  franctscano,  come  la  vita  del  povero  e  hurnile  servo  di  Bio  Frances- 
co fondatore  del  minorico  ordine  fu  scripta  du  San  Bonaventura  e  da  qua- 
tro  altrifrati.  Queste  poche  scripture  occeramente  hystorie  quetto  il  quale 
diligentemente  le  leggiera,  expeditamente  potra  cognoscere  .  .  .  la 
vocatione  la  santita  di  San  Francisco." 


414 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


from  Giovanni  di  Ceperano,1  Thomas  of  Celano 2  and 
Brother  Leo.3 

Clareno  takes  from  these  writers  narratives  containing 
several  new  and  extremely  curious  facts.4 

1  have  dwelt  particularly  upon  this  document  because 
its  value  appears  to  me  not  yet  to  have  been  properly 

!Laur.  MS  ,  f 5  4b  ff.  On  the  other  hand  we  read  in  a  letter  of  Cla- 
reno :  "  Ad  heme  (paupertatem)  perfecte  servanelam  Christvs  Franciscum 
voca vit  et  elegit  in  hac  hora  novissima  etprecepit  ei  evangelicam  assumere 
reejulam,  et  a  papa  Lnnocentio  f uit  omnibus  annuntiatum  in  concilio  gen- 
eral^ quod  de  sua  auctoritate  et  obeelientia  sanctus  Francisais  evangeli- 
cam vitam  et  regulam  assumpserat  et  Christo  inspirante  serveire  promise- 
rat,  si-ut  sanctus  virfr.  Leo  scribit  etfr.  Johannes  de  Celano."  Archiv.} 
i.,  p.  559. 

2  "  Auiiens  enim  semel  quorundam  fratrum  énormes  execssus,  utfr. 
Thomas  de  Celano  scribit,  et  malum  exemplum per eos secularibus dedum.,'> 
Laur.  MS.,  f*  13b.  The  passage  which  follows  evidently  refers  to  2  Cel., 
3,  93  and  112. 

3  "  El  fecerunt  de  régula  primei  ministri  removeri  capitulum  istuel  de 
prohibitionibus  sancti  evangelii,  sicut  freiter  Leo  scribit.'''1  Laur.  Ms.  f° 
12b.  Cf.  Spec.,  9a,  see  p.  248.  " Nam  cum  reeliisset  ele parlibus  idtrama- 
rinis,  minister  q  melt  m  loqucbatur  cum  eo,  ut  f rater  Leo  refert,  de  capi- 
tulo  paupertatis ,"  f°  13a,  cf.  Spec.,  9a,  "S.  Fremciscus,  teste  fr.  Leone, 
frequenter  et  cum  multo  studio  rec>'t<djat  fabulam  .  .  .  quod  oporte- 
batfinediter  ordinem  humiliari  et  ad  sue  humilitaiis  prineipia  confitenela 
et  tenenda  reeluci."    ArcJdv.,  ii.,  p.  129. 

There  is  only  one  point  of  contact  between  the  Legend  of  the  Three 
Companions,  such  as  it  is  to-day,  and  these  passages  ;  but  we  find  on 
the  contrary  revised  accounts  in  the  Speculum  and  in  the  other  collec- 
tions, where  they  are  cited  as  coming  from  Brother  Leo. 

4  Clareno,  for  example,  holds  that  the  Cardinal  Ugolini  had  sus- 
tained St.  Francis  without  approving  of  the  first  Rule,  in  concert  with 
Cardinal  Giovanni  di  San  Paolo.  This  is  possible,  since  Ugolini  was  cre- 
ated cardinal  in  1198  (Vide  Cardella  :  Memorie  storiche  de1  Carelinedi,  9 
vols.,  8vo,  Rome,  1792-1793.  t.  i.,  pt.  2,  p.  190).  Besides  this  would  bet- 
ter explain  the  zeal  with  which  he  protected  the  divers  Orders  founded 
by  St.  Francis,  from  1217.  The  chapter  where  Clareno  tells  how  St. 
Francis  wrote  the  Rule  shows  the  working  over  of  the  legend,  but  it  is 
very  possible  that  he  has  borrowed  it  in  its  present  form  from  Brother 
Leo.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  we  do  not  find  in  this  document  a  single  allu- 
sion to  the  Indulgences  of  Portiuncula. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


415 


appreciated.  It  is  indeed  partisan  ;  the  documents  of 
which  we  must  be  most  wary  are  not  those  whose  ten- 
dency is  manifest,  but  those  where  it  is  skilfully  con- 
cealed. 

The  life  of  St.  Francis  and  a  great  part  of  the  re- 
ligious history  of  the  thirteenth  century  will  surely 
appear  to  us  in  an  entirely  different  light  when  we  are 
able  to  fill  out  the  documents  of  the  victorious  party  by 
those  of  the  party  of  the  vanquished.  Just  as  Thomas 
of  Celano's  first  legend  is  dominated  by  the  desire  to  asso- 
ciate closely  St.  Francis,  Gregory  IX.,  and  Brother  Elias, 
so  the  Chronicle  of  the  Tribulations  is  inspired  from 
beginning  to  end  with  the  thought  that  the  troubles  of 
the  Order — to  say  the  word,  the  apostasy — began  so  early 
as  1219.  This  contention  finds  a  striking  confirmation 
in  the  Chronicle  of  Giordano  di  Giano. 

V.  The  Fioretti  1 

With  the  Fioretti  we  enter  definitively  the  domain  of 
legend.  This  literary  gem  relates  the  life  of  Francis, 
his  companions  and  disciples,  as  it  appeared  to  the 
popular  imagination  at  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth 
century.  We  have  not  to  discuss  the  literary  value  of 
this  document,  one  of  the  most  exquisite  religious  works 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  but  it  may  well  be  said  that  from 
the  historic  point  of  view  it  does  not  deserve  the  neglect 
to  which  it  has  been  left. 

1  Tlie  manuscripts  and  editions  are  well-nigh  innumerable.  M.  Luigi 
Manzoni  has  studied  them  with  a  carefulness  that  makes  it  much  to  he 
desired  that  he  continue  this  difficult  work.  Studi  sui  Fioretti:  Misce- 
lenea,  1888,  pp.  116-119,  150-152,  162-168  ;  1889,  9-15,  78-84,  132— 
135.  When  shall  we  find  some  one  who  can  and  will  undertake  to  make 
a  scientific  edition  of  them  ?  Those  which  have  appeared  during  our 
time  in  the  various  cities  of  Italy  are  iusignificant  from  a  critical  point 
of  view.  See  Mazzoni  Guido,  Capitoli  inédit i  dei  Fioretti  di  S.  Fran- 
cesco, in  the  Propugnatore,  Bologna,  1888,  vol.  xxi.,  pp.  396-411. 


410 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Most  authors  have  failed  in  courage  to  revise  the  sen- 
tence lightly  uttered  against  it  by  the  successors  of  Bol- 
landus.  Why  make  anything  of  a  book  which  Father 
Suysken  did  not  even  deign  to  read  !  1 

Yet  that  which  gives  these  stories  an  inestimable  worth 
is  what  for  want  of  a  better  term  we  may  call  their  atmos- 
phere. They  are  legendary,  worked  over,  exaggerated, 
false  even,  if  you  please,  but  they  give  us  with  a  vivac- 
ity and  intensity  of  coloring  something  that  we  shall 
search  for  in  vain  elsewhere  —  the  surroundings  in  which 
St.  Francis  lived.  More  than  any  other  biography  the 
Fioretti  transport  us  to  Umbria,  to  the  mountains  of 
the  March  of  Ancona  ;  they  make  us  visit  the  hermi- 
tages, and  mingle  with  the  life,  half  childish,  half  angelic, 
which  was  that  of  their  inhabitants. 

It  is  difficult  to  pronounce  upon  the  name  of  the 
author.  His  work  was  only  that  of  gathering  the  flowers 
of  his  bouquet  from  written  and  oral  tradition.  The 
question  whether  he  wrote  in  Latin  or  Italian  has  been 
much  discussed  and  appears  to  be  not  yet  settled  ; 
what  is  certain  is  that  though  this  work  may  be  anterior 
to  the  Conformities,2  it  is  a  little  later  than  the  Chron- 
icle of  the  Tribulations,  for  it  would  be  strange  that  it 
made  no  mention  of  Angelo  Clareno,  if  it  was  written 
after  his  death. 

This  book  is  in  fact  an  essentially  local 3  chronicle  ; 
the  author  has  in  mind  to  erect  a  monument  to  the 
glory  of  the  Brothers  Minor  of  the  March  of  Ancona. 
This  province,  which  is  evidently  his  own,  "  does  it  not 

1  Vide  A.  SS.,  p.  865  :  "  Floret  inn  non  /erji,  nec  curandum  putaoi." 
Cf.  553f  :  "Floretum  ad  inanum  non  hebco." 

2  Bartolommeo  di  Pisa  compiled  it  in  1385  ;  then  certain  manuscripts  of 
the  Fioretti  are  earlier.  Besides,  in  the  stories  that  the  Conformities  bor- 
row from  the  Fioretti,  we  perceive  Bartolommeos  work  of  abbreviation. 

3 1  am  speaking  here  only  of  the  fifty-three  chapters  which  form  the 
trne  collection  of  the  Fioretti. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


417 


resemble  the  sky  blazing  with  stars  ?  The  holy  Brothers 
who  dwelt  in  it,  like  the  stars  in  the  sky,  have  illumi- 
nated and  adorned  the  Order  of  St.  Francis,  filling  the 
world  with  their  examples  and  teaching."  He  is  ac- 
quainted with  the  smallest  villages,1  each  having  at  a 
short  distance  its  monastery,  well  apart,  usually  near  a 
torrent,  in  the  edge  of  a  wood,  and  above,  near  the  hill- 
top, a  few  almost  inaccessible  cells,  the  asylums  of 
Brothers  even  more  than  the  others  in  love  with  con- 
templation and  retirement.2 

The  chapters  that  concern  St.  Francis  and  the  Um- 
brian  Brothers  are  only  a  sort  of  introduction  ;  Egidio, 
Masseo,  Leo  on  one  side,  St.  Clara  on  the  other,  are  wit- 
nesses that  the  ideal  at  Portiuncula  and  St.  Damian  was 
indeed  the  same  to  which  in  later  days  Giachimo  di 
Massa,  Pietro  di  Alonticulo,  Conrad  di  Offida,  Giovanni 
di  Penna,  and  Giovanni  dellaTerna  endeavored  to  attain. 

"While  most  of  the  other  legends  give  us  the  Franciscan 
tradition  of  the  great  convents,  the  Fioretti  are  almost 
the  only  document  which  shows  it  as  it  was  perpetuated 
in  the  hermitages  and  among  the  people.  In  default  of 
accuracy  of  detail,  the  incidents  which  are  related  here 
contain  a  higher  truth — their  tone  is  true.  Here  are 
words  that  were  never  uttered,  acts  that  never  took 
place,  but  the  soul  and  the  heart  of  the  early  Franciscans 
were  surely  what  they  are  depicted  here. 

1  Tlie  province  of  the  March  of  Ancona  counted  seven  custodias  : 
1,  Ascoli  ;  2,  Camerino  ;  3,  Ancona  ;  4,  Jesi  ;  5,  Fermo  ;  6,  Fano  ;  7, 
Felestro.  The  Fioretti  mention  at  least  six  of  the  monasteries  of  the 
custodia  of  Fermo  :  Moliano,  51,  53  ;  Fallerone,  32,  51  ;  Bruforte  and 
Soffiano,  46,  47  ;  Massa,  51  ;  Penna,  45  ;  Fermo,  41,  49,  51. 

2  At  each  page  we  are  reminded  of  those  groves  which  were  originally 
the  indispensable  appendage  of  the  Franciscan  monasteries  :  La  selxa 
cK  era  (Mora  aUato  a  S.  M.  degli  Angeli,  3,  10,  15,  16,  etc.  La  selva 
(V  un  Ivogo  deserto  del  val  di  Spoleto  (Carceri  ?),  4  ;  selva  di  Forano,  42,  di 
Massa.  51,  etc. 

27 


418 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


The  Fioretti  have  the  living  truth  that  the  pencil  gives. 
Something  is  wanting  in  the  physiognomy  of  the  Pover- 
ello  when  we  forget  his  conversation  with  Brother  Leo 
on  the  perfect  joy,  his  journey  to  Sienna  with  Masseo,  or 
even  the  conversion  of  the  wolf  of  Gubbio. 

We  must  not,  however,  exaggerate  the  legendary  side 
of  the  Fioretti  :  there  are  not  more  that  two  or  three  of 
these  stories  of  which  the  kernel  is  not  historic  and  easy 
to  find.  The  famous  episode  of  the  wolf  of  Gubbio, 
which  is  unquestionably  the  most  marvellous  of  all  the 
series,  is  only,  to  speak  the  engraver's  language,  the  third 
state  of  the  story  of  the  robbers  of  Monte  Casale1 
mingled  with  a  legend  of  the  Yerna. 

The  stories  crowd  one  another  in  this  book  like  flocks 
of  memories  that  come  upon  us  pell-mell,  and  in  which 
insignificant  details  occupy  a  larger  place  than  the  most 
important  events  ;  our  memory  is,  in  fact,  an  overgrown 
child,  and  what  it  retains  of  a  man  is  generally  a  feature, 
a  word,  a  gesture.  Scientific  history  is  trying  to  react,  to 
mark  the  relative  value  of  facts,  to  bring  forward  the  im- 
portant ones,  to  cast  into  shade  that  which  is  secondary. 
Is  it  not  a  mistake  ?  Is  there  such  a  thing  as  the  impor- 
tant and  the  secondary  ?   How  is  it  going  to  be  marked  ? 

The  popular  imagination  is  right  :  what  we  need  to  re- 
tain of  a  man  is  the  expression  of  countenance  in  which 
lives  his  whole  being,  a  heart-cry,  a  gesture  that  expresses 
his  personality.  Do  we  not  find  all  of  Jesus  in  the  words 
of  the  Last  Supper  ?  And  all  of  St.  Francis  in  his  ad- 
dress to  brother  wolf  and  his  sermon  to  the  birds  ? 

Let  us  beware  of  despising  these  documents  in  which 
the  first  Franciscans  are  described  as  the}*-  saw  them- 
selves to  be.  Unfolding  under  the  Umbrian  sky  at  the 
foot  of  the  olives  of  St.  Damian,  or  the  firs  of  the  March 

1  The  Speculum,  46b,  58b,  158a,  gives  us  three  states.  Cf.  Fior.,  26 
and  21  ;  Conform.,  119b,  2. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


419 


of  Ancona,  these  wild  flowers  have  a  perfume  and  an 
originality  which  we  look  for  in  vain  in  the  carefully 
cultivated  flowers  of  a  learned  gardener. 

Appendices  of  the  Fioretti 

In  the  first  of  these  appendices  the  compiler  has  di- 
vided into  five  chapters  all  the  information  on  the  stig- 
mata which  he  was  able  to  gather.  It  is  easy  to  under- 
stand the  success  of  the  Fioretti.  The  people  fell  in  love 
with  these  stories,  in  which  St.  Francis  and  his  compan- 
ions appear  both  more  human  and  more  divine  than  in 
the  other  legends  ;  and  they  began  very  soon  to  feel  the 
need  of  so  completing  them  as  to  form  a  veritable  biog- 
raphy.1 

The  second,  entitled  Life  of  Brother  Ginepro,  is  only 
indirectly  connected  with  St.  Francis  ;  yet  it  deserves  to 
be  studied,  for  it  offers  the  same  kind  of  interest  as  the 
principal  collection,  to  which  it  is  doubtless  posterior. 
In  these  fourteen  chapters  we  find  the  princijml  features 
of  the  life  of  this  Brother,  whose  mad  and  saintly  freaks 
still  furnish  material  for  conversation  in  Umbrian  monas- 
teries. These  unpretending  pages  discover  to  us  one 
aspect  of  the  Franciscan  heart.  The  official  historians 
have  thought  it  their  duty  to  keep  silence  upon  this 
Brother,  who  to  them  appeared  to  be  a  supremely  indis- 
creet personage,  very  much  in  the  way  of  the  good  name 
of  the  Order  in  the  eyes  of  the  laics.  They  were  right 
from  their  point  of  view,  but  we  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude 
to  the  Fioretti  for  having  preserved  for  us  this  person- 

1  This  desire  was  so  natural  that  the  manuscript  of  the  Angelica 
Library  includes  many  additional  chapters,  concerning  the  gift  of  Por- 
tiuncula,  the  indulgence  of  August  2d.  the  birth  of  St.  Francis,  etc. 
(Vide  Amoni.  Fioretti,  Roma,  1S89,  pp.  266,  378-386.)  It  would  be  an 
interesting  study  to  seek  the  origin  of  these  documents  and  to  establish 
their  relationship  with,  the  Speculum  and  the  Conformities.  Vide  Cm- 
form,,  231a,  1  ;  121b  ;  Spec,  92-96. 


420 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


ality,  so  blithe,  so  modest,  and  with  so  arch  a  good  nat- 
ure. Certainly  St.  Francis  was  more  like  Ginepro  than 
like  Brother  Elias  or  St.  Bonaventura.1 

The  third,  Life  of  Brother  Egidio,  appears  to  be 
on  the  whole  the  most  ancient  document  on  the  life  of 
the  famous  Ecstatic  that  we  possess.  It  is  very  possi- 
ble that  these  stories  might  be  traced  to  Brother  Gio- 
vanni, to  whom  the  Three  Companions  appeal  in  their 
prologue. 

In  the  defective  texts,  given  us  in  the  existing  editions 
we  perceive  the  hand  of  an  annotator  whose  notes  have 
slipped  into  the  text,2  but  in  spite  of  that  this  life  is  one 
of  the  most  important  of  the  secondary  texts.  This  al- 
ways itinerant  brother,  one  of  whose  principal  preoccu- 
pations is  to  live  by  his  labor,  is  one  of  the  most  original 
and  agreeable  figures  in  Francis's  surroundings,  and  it  is 
in  lives  of  this  sort  that  we  must  seek  the  true  meaning 
of  some  of  the  passages  of  the  Rule,  and  precisely  in- 
those  that  have  had  the  most  to  suffer  from  the  enter- 
prise of  exegetes. 

The  fourth  includes  the  favorite  maxims  of  Brother 
Egidio  ;  they  have  no  other  importance  than  to  show  the 
tendencies  of  the  primitive  Franciscan  teaching.  They 
are  short,  precise,  practical  counsels,  saturated  with  mys- 
ticism, and  yet  in  them  good  sense  never  loses  its 
rights.  The  collection,  just  as  it  is  in  the  Fioretti,  is  no 
doubt  posterior  to  Egidio,  for  in  1385  Bartolommeo  of 
Pisa  furnished  a  much  longer  one.3 

1  Ginepro  was  received  into  the  Order  by  St.  Francis.  In  1253  he 
was  present  at  St.  Clara's  death.  A.  SS.,  Aug.,  t.  ii.,  p.  764d.  The 
Conformities  speak  of  him  in  detail,  f°  62b. 

'2  The  first  seven  chapters  form  a  whole.  The  three  which  follow  are 
doubtless  a  first  attempt  at  completing  them. 

3  Conformities,  f 0  55b,  l-60a,  1. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


421 


VI.  Chronicle  of  the  XXIV.  Generals  1 

We  find  here  at  the  end  of  the  life  of  Francis  that  of 
most  of  his  companions,  and  the  events  that  occurred 
under  the  first  twenty-four  generals. 

It  is  a  very  ordinary  work  of  compilation.  The  au- 
thors have  sought  to  include  in  it  all  the  pieces  which 
they  had  succeeded  in  collecting,  and  the  result  presents 
a  very  disproportioned  whole.  A  thorough  study  of  it 
might  be  interesting  and  useful,  but  it  would  be  possible 
only  after  its  publication.  This  cannot  be  long  delayed  : 
twice  (at  intervals  of  fifteen  months)  when  I  have  desired 
to  study  the  Assisi  manuscript  it  was  found  to  be  with 
the  Franciscans  of  Quaracchi,  who  were  preparing  to 
print  it. 

It  is  difficult  not  to  bring  the  epoch  in  which  this  col- 
lection was  closed  near  to  that  when  Bartolommeo  of 
Pisa  wrote  his  famous  work.  Perhaps  the  two  are  quite 
closely  related. 

This  chronicle  was  one  of  Glassberger's  favorite  sources. 

VII.  The  Conformities  of  Bartolommeo  of  Pisa  2 

The  Book  of  the  Conformities,  to  which  Brother  Barto- 
lommeo of  Pisa  devoted  more  than  fifteen  years  of  his 
life,3  appears  to  have  been  read  very  inattentively  by 

1  See  Archiv.,  t.  i.,  p.  145,  an  article  of  Father  Denifle  :  Zur  Quellen- 
kunde  der  Fmnziskaner  Geschichte,  where  he  mentions  at  least  eight 
manuscripts  of  this  work.  Cf.  Ehrle  :  Zeitsclirift ,  1883,  p.  324,  note  3. 
I  have  studied  only  the  two  manuscripts  of  Florence  :  Riccardi,  279, 
paper,  243  fos.  of  two  cols,  recently  numbered.  The  Codex  of  the  Lau- 
rentian  Gaddian.  rel. ,  53,  is  less  careful.  It  is  also  on  paper,  20  x  27, 
and  counts  254  fos.  of  1  column.  F°  1  was  formerly  numbered  88. 
The  order  of  the  chapters  is  not  the  same  as  in  the  preceding. 

2  The  citations  are  always  made  from  the  edition  of  Milan,  1510,  4to 
of  256  folios  of  two  columns.  The  best  known  of  the  subsequent  edi- 
tions are  those  of  Milan.  1513,  and  Bologna,  1590. 

3  He  began  it  in  1285  (f°  1),  and  it  was  authorized  by  the  chapter- 


422 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


most  of  the  authors  who  have  spoken  of  it.1  In  justice 
to  them  we  must  add  that  it  would  be  hard  to  rind  a 
work  more  difficult  to  read  ;  the  same  facts  reappear 
from  ten  to  fifteen  times,  and  end  by  wearying  the  least 
delicate  nerves. 

It  is  to  this  no  doubt  that  we  must  attribute  the  neg- 
lect to  which  it  has  been  left.  I  do  not  hesitate,  how- 
ever, to  see  in  it  the  most  important  work  which  has  been 
made  on  the  life  of  St.  Francis.  Of  course  the  author 
does  not  undertake  historical  criticism  as  wre  understand 
it  to-day,  but  if  we  must  not  expect  to  find  him  a  histo- 
rian, we  can  boldly  place  him  in  the  front  rank  of  com- 
pilers.2 

If  the  Bollandists  had  more  thoroughly  studied  him 
they  would  have  seen  more  clearly  into  the  difficult  ques- 
tion of  the  sources,  and  the  authors  who  have  come  after 
them  would  have  been  spared  numberless  errors  and  in- 
terminable researches. 

general  August  2,  1399  (f v  256a,  1).  Besides,  on  f°  150a,  1,  he  set  down, 
the  date  when  he  was  writing.    It  was  in  1390. 

1  I  am  not  here  concerned  with  the  foolish  attacks  of  certain  Protes- 
tant authors  upon  this  life.  That  is  a  quarrel  of  the  theologians  which 
in  no  way  concerns  history.  Nowhere  does  Bartolommeo  of  Pisa  make 
St.  Francis  the  equal  of  Jesus,  and  he  was  able  even  to  forestall  criti- 
cism in  this  respect.  The  Bollandists  are  equally  severe:  "  Cum  Pisanus 
fuerit  scriptor  magis  pius  et  credulus  quam  crisi  severa  usus.  ..." 
A.  SS.,  p.  551  e. 

2  He  has  avoided  the  mistakes  so  unfortunately  committed  by  Wadding 
in  his  list  of  ministers  general.  Vide  66a,  2,  104a,  1,  118b,  2.  He  was 
lecturer  on  theology  at  Bologna,  Padua,  Pisa,  Sienna,  and  Florence. 
He  preached  for  many  years  and  with  great  success  in  the  principal  vil- 
lages of  the  Peninsula  and  could  thus  take  advantage  of  his  travels  by 
collecting  useful  notes.  Mark  of  Lisbon  has  preserved  for  us  a  notice  of 
his  life.  Vide  Croniçlie  dei  fratri  Minor i,  t.  iii.,  p.  6  ff.,  of  the  Diola 
edition.  He  died  December  10,  1401.  For  further  details  see  Wadding, 
ann.  1399,  vii.,  vjii.,  and  above  all  Sbaralea,  Supplementum,  p.  109. 
He  is  the  author  of  an  exposition  of  the  Rule  little  known  which  can  be 
found  in  the  Speculum  Marin,  Rouen,  1509,  f°  66b-83a,  of  part  three. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


423 


Starting  with  the  thought  that  Francis's  life  had  been 
a  perfect  imitation  of  that  of  Jesus,  Bartolommeo  at- 
tempted to  collect,  without  losing  a  single  one,  all  the  in- 
stances of  the  life  of  the  Poverello  scattered  through  the 
diverse  legends  still  known  at  that  time. 

He  regretted  that  Bonaventura,  while  borrowing  the 
narratives  of  his  predecessors,  had  often  abridged  them,1 
and  himself  desired  to  preserve  them  in  their  original 
bloom.  Better  situated  than  any  one  for  such  a  work, 
since  he  had  at  his  disposal  the  archives  of  the  Sacro 
Convent o  of  Assisi,  it  may  be  said  that  he  has  omitted 
nothing  of  importance  and  that  he  has  brought  into  his 
work  considerable  pieces  from  nearly  all  the  legends 
which  appeared  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centu- 
ries ;  they  are  there  only  in  fragments,  it  is  true,  but  with 
perfect  accuracy.2 

When  his  researches  were  unsuccessful  he  avows  it 
simply,  without  attempting  to  fill  out  the  written  testi- 
monies with  his  own  conjectures.3  He  goes  farther,  and 
submits  the  documents  he  has  before  him  to  a  real  test- 

1  This  opinion  is  expressed  in  a  guarded  manner.  For  example, 
f°  207a.  1,  Bartolommeo  relates  the  miracle  of  the  Chapter  of  the  Mats, 
first  following  St.  Bonaventura,  then  adding:  11  Et  quia  non  aliter 
tangit  dicta  pars  (legendœ  mnjoris)  hoc  insigne  miraculum  :  antiqualegen- 
da  hoc  refertur  in  hune  modum."  Cf.  225a,  2m.  11  Et  quia  fr.  Bona- 
ventura succincte  multa  tangit  et  in  breti:  pro  evidentia  prefatorum  no- 
tandwn  est   .    .    .    ut  dicit  antiqua  legenda." 

"  However,  it  is  necessary  to  note  that  not  only  are  there  considerable 
differences  between  the  editions  published,  but  also  that  the  first  (that 
of  Milan,  1510)  has  been  completed  and  revised  by  its  editor.  The 
judgments  passed  upon  Raymond  Ganfridi,  104a,  1,  and  Boniface  VIII. , 
103b,  1,  show  traces  of  later  corrections.  (Cf.  125a,  1.  At  f 0  72a,  2m,  is 
indicated  the  date  of  the  death  of  St.  Bernardin,  which  was  in  1444,  etc.) 
Besides,  we  are  surprised  to  find  beside  the  pages  where  the  sources  are 
indicated  with  clearness  others  where  stories  follow  one  another  coming 
one  knows  not  from  whence. 

3  F5  70a,  1  :  llCujus  nomen  non  reperiy  la,  2  :  "  Multaque  non  ex 
industria  sed  quia  ea  noscere  non  valui  omittendo." 


424 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


ing,  laying  aside  those  lie  considers  uncertain.1  Finally 
lie  takes  pains  to  point  ont  the  passages  in  which  his 
only  authority  is  oral  testimony.2 

As  he  is  almost  continually  citing  the  legends  of  Ce- 
lano,  the  Three  Companions,  and  Bonaventura,  and  as 
the  citations  prove  on  verification  to  be  literally  accu- 
rate, as  well  as  those  of  the  Will,  the  divers  Rules,  or 
the  pontifical  bulls,  it  seems  natural  to  conclude  that  he 
was  equally  accurate  with  the  citations  which  we  cannot 
verify,  and  in  which  we  find  long  extracts  from  works 
that  have  disappeared.3 

'•  F°  78a,  1  :  Informationes  quas  non  scribo  quia  imperfecta  s  reperi. 
Cf.  229b,  2:  "Zte  aliis  multis  apparitionibus  non  reperi  saipturam, 
quare  hic  non  pono.'n 

2  F'  69a,  1  :  "  Hec  ut  audivi  posui  quia  ejus  legendam  non  vidi."  Cf. 
68b,  2in  :  Fr.  Henricus  generalis  minister  mihi  magistro  Bartholomeo 
dixit  ipse  oretenus. 

3  The  citations  from  Bonaventura  are  decidedly  more  frequent.  We 
should  not  be  surprised,  since  this  story  is  the  official  biography  of  St. 
Francis  ;  the  chapter  from  which  Bartolommeo  takes  his  quotations  is 
almost  always  indicated,  and,  naturally,  follows  the  old  division  in 
five  parts.  Opening  the  book  at  hazard  at  folio  136a  I  find  no  less 
than  six  references  to  the  Legenda  Major  in  the  first  column.  To  give 
an  idea  of  the  style  of  Bartolommeo  of  Pisa  I  shall  give  in  substance  the 
contents  of  a  page  of  his  book.  See,  for  example,  f  111a  (lib.  i.,  con- 
form, x.,  pars,  ii.,  Franciscus  predicator).  In  the  third  line  be  cites 
Bonaventura  :  "  Fr.  Bonaventura  in  quarta  parte  majoris  légende  dicit 
quod  b.  Franciscus  ridebatur  intuentibus  homo  cdterius  seculi."  Textual 
citation  of  Bonaventure,  45.  Three  lines  further  on  :  "  Vtrwm  qualis 
esset  b.  F.  quoad  personam  sic  habetur  in  legenda  antiqua 

liomo  facundissimus,  facie  7iilarù,  etc."  The  literal  citation  of  the  sketch 
of  Francis  follows  as  1  Celano,  83,  gives  it  as  far  as  :  "  inter  peccatores 
quasi  units  ex  Mis,"  and  to  mark  the  end  of  the  quotation  Bartolommeo 
adds  :  "  Hec  legenda  antiqua.'"  In  the  next  column  paragraph  4  com- 
mences with  the  words  :  B.  Francisez  predicationem  reddebat  mirabihm 
et  gloriosam  ip>sius  sancli  loquutio  :  etenim  legenda  trium  Sociorum  dicit  et 
Legenda  major  parte  tertia  :  B.  Francisci  eloquia  erant  non  inania,  nee 
risu  c?igna,  etc. ,  which  corresponds  literally  with  3  Soc. ,  25,  and  Bon. ,  28. 
Then  come  two  chapters  of  Bonaventura  almost  entire,  beginning  with  : 
In  duodecima  parte  légende  majoris  dicit  Fr.  Bonaventura  :  Erat  enim 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


The  citations  which  he  makes  from  Celano  present  no 
difficulty  ;  they  are  all  accurate,  corresponding  sometimes 
with  the  First  sometimes  with  the  Second  Legend.1 

Those  from  the  Legend  of  the  Three  Companions  are 
accurate,  but  it  appears  that  Bartolommeo  drew  them 
from  a  text  somewhat  different  from  that  which  we  have.2 

With  the  citations  from  the  Legenda  Antiqua  the  ques- 
tion is  complicated  and  becomes  a  nice  one.  Was  there 
a  work  of  this  name  ?  Certain  authors,  and  among  them 
the  Bollandist  Suysken,  seem  to  incline  toward  the  nega- 
tive, and  believe  that  to  cite  the  Legenda  Antigua  is  about 
the  same  as  to  refer  vaguely  to  tradition.  Others  among 
contemporaries  have  thought  that  after  the  approbation 
and  definitive  adoption  of  Bonaventura's  Legenda  Major 

xerbum  ejus,  etc.  Textual  quotation  of  Bon.,  178  and  179.  The  page 
ends  with  another  quotation  from  Bonaventura  :  Sic  dicebat  prout 
récitât  Bonacentura  in  octavo,  parte  Légende  majoris  :  Eac  offidum  patri 
misericordiarum.  Vide  Bonav.,  102  end  aud  103  entire.  This  suffices 
■without  doubt  to  show  with  what  precision  the  authorities  have  been 
quoted  in  this  work,  with  what  attention  and  confidence  ought  to  be 
examined  those  portions  of  documents  lost  or  mislaid  which  he  has 
here  preserved  for  us. 

1  F°  31b,  2:  ut  dicit  fr.  Thomas  in  sua  legenda,  cf.  2  Cel.,  3,  60.— 
140a,  2  :  Fr.  in  leg.  fr.  Thome,  cf.  2  Cel...  3,  60.  —  140a  1,  cf.  2  Cel.,  3 
16.— 142b,  1  :  Fr.  in  leg.  Thome  capitulo  de  charitate,  cf.  2  Cel. ,  3,  115. 
—144b,  1  :  Fr.  in  leg.  fr.  Thome  capitula  de  oratione.  cf.  2  Cel.,  3,  40  — 
144b,  1,  cf.  2  Cel.,  3*",  60.— 144b,  2.  cf.  2  Cel.,  3,  78.— 176b,  2,  cf.  2 
Cel.,  3,  79.— 182b,  2.  cf.  2  Cel., 2,  1.— 241b,  1.  cf.  2  Cel.,  3,  141.— 181a, 
2,  cf.  1  Cel..  27.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  these  lists  of  quotations  do 
not  pretend  to  be  complete. 

2  P>  36b,  2.  Tit  enim  habetur  in  leg.  3  Soc.  cf.  3  Soc,  10.— 46b,  1, 
cf.  3  Soc,  25-28.— 38b  2,  cf.  3  Soc  3.— 111a,  2.  cf.  3  Soc,  25.— 134a.  2, 
cf.  3  Soc,  4.— 142b,  2,  cf.  3  Soc,  57  and  58.— 167b,  2,  cf.  3  Soc,  3  and 
8.— 168a,  1,  cf.  3  Soc,  10.— 170b,  1,  cf.  3  Soc,  39.  4.— 175b,  2,  cf.  3 
Soc,  59.— 180b,  2,  cf.  3  Soc,  4.— 181a.  1,  cf.  3  Soc,  5.  7,  24,  33,  and 
67.— 181a,  2.  cf.  3  Soc,  36.— 229b,  2,  cf.  3  Soc.  14.  etc.  The  reading 
of  3  Soc  which  Bartolommeo  had  before  his  eyes  was  pretty  much  the 
same  we  have  to  day,  for  he  says,  181a,  2,  referring  to  3  Soc,  67  :  "  Ut 
habetur  quasi  in  fine  leg.  3  'Soc." 


426 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


by  the  Order  the  Legends  anterior  to  that,  and  especially 
that  of  Celano,  were  called  Legenda  Antigua.  The  Con- 
formities permit  us  to  look  a  little  closer  into  the  ques- 
tion. We  find,  in  fact,  passages  from  the  Legenda  Antigua 
which  reproduce  Celano's  First  Life.1  Others  present 
points  of  contact  with  the  Second,  sometimes  a  literary 
exactitude,2  but  often  these  are  the  same  stories  told  in  too 
different  a  way  for  us  to  consider  them  borrowed.3 

Finally  there  are  many  of  these  extracts  from  the  Le- 
genda Antigua  of  which  we  find  no  source  in  any  of  the 
documents  already  discussed.4  This  would  suffice  to 
show  that  the  two  are  not  to  be  confounded.  It  has  ab- 
sorbed them  and  brought  about  certain  changes  while 
completing  them  with  others.3 

The  study  of  the  fragments  which  Bartolommeo  has 
preserved  to  us  shows  immediately  that  this  collection 
belonged  to  the  party  of  the  Zealots  of  Poverty  ;  we  might 
be  tempted  to  see  in  it  the  work  of  Brother  Leo. 

Most  fortunately  there  is  a  passage  where  Bartolommeo 
di  Pisa  cites  as  being  by  Conrad  di  Offida  a  fragment 
which  he  had  already  cited  before  as  borrowed  from  the 

1  F°  111a,  1,  Sic  habetur  in  leg.  ant,  corresponds  literally  with  1  Cel., 
83. — 144a,  2.  Francisais  in  leg.  ant.  cap.  v.  de  zelo  ad  religionem,  to  1 
Cel.  106. 

2  F°  111b,  1.  De  predicantibus  loqueus  sic  dicebat  in.  ant.  leg.  Cf. 
2  Cel.,  3,  99  and  100.  140b,  1.  Cf.  2  Cel.,  3,  84.— 144b,  1,  cf.  2  Cel., 
3,  45._i44a,  1,  cf.  2  Cel.,  3,  95  and  15.— 225b,  2,  cf.  2  Cel.,  3,  116. 

3F"  31a,  1.  Vide  2  Cel.,  3,  83.— 143a,  2.  Vide  2  Cel.,  3,  65  and 
116.— 144a,  1.    Vide  2  Cel.,  3,  94.— 170b,  1.    Vide  2  Cel.,  3,  11. 

4  F^  14a,  2.— 32a,  1.— 101a,  2.— 169b,  1.— 144b,  2.— 142a,  2.— 143b, 
2.— 168b,  1.— 144b.  1. 

5  Chapters  18  (chapter  of  the  mats)  and  25  (lepers  cured)  of  the  Fio- 
retti  are  found  in  Latin  in  the  Conf.  as  borrowed  from  the  Leg.  Ant. 
Vide  174b,  1,  and  207a,  1. 

Finally,  according  to  f°  168b,  2,  it  is  also  from  the  Leg.  Ant.  that  the 
description  of  the  coat,  such  as  we  find  at  the  end  of  the  Chronique  des 
Tribulations,  was  borrowed.    See  Archiv.,  t*.  ii. ,  p.  153. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOUPX'ES 


427 


Legenda  Antigua.1  I  would  not  exaggerate  the  value  of 
an  isolated  instance,  but  it  seems  an  altogether  plausible 
hypothesis  to  make  Conrad  di  Ofhda  the  author  of  this 
compilation.  All  that  we  know  of  him,  of  his  tendencies, 
his  struggle  for  the  strict  observance,  accords  with  what 
the  known  fragments  of  the  Legenda  Antigua  permit  us 
to  infer  as  to  its  author.2 

However  this  may  be,  it  appears  that  in  this  collec- 
tion the  stories  have  been  given  us  (the  principal  source 
being  the  Legend  of  Brother  Leo  or  the  Three  Com- 
panions before  its  mutilation)  in  a  much  less  abridged 
form  than  in  the  Second  Life  of  Celano.  This  work  is 
hardly  more  than  a  second  edition  of  that  of  Brother 
Leo,  here  and  there  completed  with  a  few  new  incidents, 
and  especially  with  exhortations  to  perseverance  ad- 
dressed to  the  persecuted  Zealots.3 

VIII.  Chronicle  of  Glasseerger  4 

Evidently  this  work,  written  about  1508,  cannot  be 
classed  among  the  sources  properly  so  called  ;  but  it  pre- 

1  Fc  182a.  2;  cf.  51b,  1  ;  144 a:  1. 

2  He  died  December  12,  1806,  at  Bastia,  near  Assisi.  See  upon  him 
Of  iron.  TrStml.  Arc7tic,  ii.  ;  311  and  312  ;  Conform. ,  60,  119,  and  153. 

s  Although  the  history  of  the  Indulgence  of  Portiuncula  was  of  all 
subjects  the  one  most  largely  treated  in  the  Conformities,  151b,  2- 
157a,  2.  not  once  does  Bartolommeo  of  Pisa  refer  to  it  in  the  Legenda 
Antigua.  It  seems,  then,  that  this  collection  also  was  silent  as  to  this 
celebrated  pardon. 

4  Published  with  extreme  care  by  the  Franciscan  Fathers  of  the 
Observance  in  t.  ii.  of  the  Analecta  Franciscana,  ad  Glares  Aquas 
(Quaracchi.  near  Florence),  1888.  1  vol.  .  crown  8vo,  of  xxxvi.-612  pp. 
This  edition,  as  much  from  the  critical  point  of  view  of  the  text,  its 
correctness,  its  various  readings  and  notes,  as  from  the  material  point 
of  view,  is  perfect  and  makes  the  more  desirable  a  publication  of  the 
chronicles  of  the  xxiv.  generals  and  of  Salimbeni  by  the  same  editors. 
The  beginning  up  to  the  year  1262  has  been  published  already  by  Dr. 
Karl  Evers  under  the  title  Analecta  ad  Fratrum  Minorum  historiam, 
Leipsic,  1882,  4to  of  89  pp. 


428 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


sents  in  a  convenient  form  the  general  history  of  the  Order, 
and  thanks  to  its  citations  permits  ns  to  verify  certain 
passages  in  the  primitive  legends  of  which  Glassberger 
had  the  MS.  before  his  eyes.  It  is  thus  in  particular 
with  the  chronicle  of  Brother  Giordano  di  Giano,  which  he 
has  inserted  almost  bodily  in  his  own  work. 

IX.  Chronicle  op  Mark  of  Lisbon  1 

This  work  is  of  the  same  character  as  that  of  Glass- 
berger ;  it  can  only  be  used  by  way  of  addition.  There  is, 
however,  a  series  of  facts  in  which  it  has  a  special  value  ; 
it  is  when  the  Franciscan  missions  in  Spain  or  Morocco 
are  in  question.  The  author  had  documents  on  this  sub- 
ject which  did  not  reach  the  friars  in  distant  countries. 

V 

CHRONICLES  OUTSIDE  OF  THE  ORDER 
I.  Jacques  de  Vitry 

The  following  documents,  which  Ave  can  only  briefly  in- 
dicate, are  of  inestimable  value;  they  emanate  from  men 
particularly  well  situated  to  give  us  the  impression  which 
the  Umbrian  prophet  produced  on  his  generation. 

Jacques  de  Vitry2  has  left  extended  writings  on  St. 

1  I  have  been  able  only  to  procure  the  Italian  edition  published  by 
Horatio  Diola  under  the  title  Croniche  degli  Ordini  instituti  dal  P.  S. 
Francesco,  3  vols.,  8vo,  Venice,  1606. 

2  He  was  born  at  Vitry- sur-Seine,  became  Curé  of  Argenté uil,  near 
Paris  ;  Canon  of  Oignies,  in  tbe  diocese  of  Namur,  preached  the  crusade 
against  the  Albigenses,  and  accompanied  the  Crusaders  to  Palestine  ; 
having  been  made  Bishop  of  Acre,  he  was  present  in  1219  at  the  siege 
and  at  the  capture  of  Damietta  and  returned  to  Europe  in  1225  ;  created 
Cardinal-bishop  of  Frascati  in  1229,  he  died  in  1244,  leaving  a  number 
of  writings.  For  his  life,  see  the  preface  of  his  Uîstoriœ,  edition  of 
Douai,  1597. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


429 


Francis.  Like  a  prudent  man  who  has  already  seen 
many  religious  madmen,  he  is  at  first  reserved  ;  but  soon 
this  sentiment  disappears,  and  we  find  in  him  only  a 
humble  and  active  admiration  for  the  Apostolic  Man. 

He  speaks  of  him  in  a  letter  which  he  wrote  immedi- 
ately after  the  taking  of  Damietta  (November,  1219),  to 
his  friends  in  Lorraine,  to  describe  it  to  them.1  A  few 
lines  suffice  to  describe  St.  Francis  and  point  out  his  ir- 
resistible influence.  There  is  not  a  single  passage  in  the 
Franciscan  biographers  which  gives  a  more  living  idea  of 
the  apostolate  of  the  Poverello. 

He  returns  to  him  more  at  length  in  his  Historia  Occi- 
dentalism devoting  to  him  the  thirty-second  chapter  of  this 
curious  work.2  These  pages,  vibrating  with  enthusiasm, 
were  written  during  Francis's  lifetime,3  at  the  time  when 
the  most  enlightened  members  of  the  Church,  who  had 
believed  themselves  to  be  living  in  the  evening  of  the 
world,  in  vesper e  mundi  tendentis  ad  occasion,  suddenly  saw 
in  the  direction  of  Umbria  the  light  of  a  new  day. 

II.  Thomas  of  Spalato 

An  archdeacon  of  the  Cathedral  of  Spalato,  who  in  1220 
was  studying  at  Bologna,  has  left  us  a  very  living  por- 
trait of  St.  Francis  and  the  memory  of  the  impression 
which  his  preachings  produced  in  that  learned  town.4 

1  Tliis  letter  may  be  found  in  (Bongars)  G  esta  Dei  per  Francio,  pp. 
1146-1149. 

2  Jacobi  de  Vitriaco  Libri  duo  quorum  prior  Onentalis,  alter  Occiden- 
tals Eistoriœ  nomine  inscribitur  studio  Fr.  MoscM  Buaci  ex  ojfficina  Bal- 
tliazaris  Belleri,  1597,  16mo,  480  pp.  Chapter  xxxii.  fills  pages  349-353, 
and  is  entitled  Be  ordine  et  prœdicatione  fratrum  Minorum.  See  above, 
p.  229. 

3  Tbis  appears  from  tbe  passage  :  Yidemus  primus  ordinis  fundatorem 
magestrum  cui  tanquam  summo  Priori  suo  omnes  alii  obediunt.  Loc. 
cit.,  p.  352. 

4  It  is  inserted  in  tbe  treatise  of  Sigonius  on  tbe  bisbops  of  Bologna  : 
Caroli  Sigonii  de  episcopis  Bononiensibus  libri  quinque  cum  notis  L.  G. 


430 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Something  of  his  enthusiasm  has  passed  into  his  story; 
we  feel  that  that  day,  August  15,  1220,  when  he  met 
the  Poverello  of  Assisi,  was  one  of  the  best  of  his  life.1 

III.  Divers  Chronicles 

The  continuation  of  William  of  Tyre  2  brings  us  a  new 
account  of  Francis's  attempt  to  conquer  the  Soudan.  This 
narrative,  the  longest  of  all  three  we  have  on  this  subject, 
contains  no  feature  essentially  new,  but  it  gives  one  more 
witness  to  the  historic  value  of  the  Franciscan  legends. 

Finally,  there  are  two  chronicles  written  during  Fran- 
cis's life,  which,  without  giving  anything  new,  speak 
with  accuracy  of  his  foundation,  and  prove  how  rapidly 
that  religious  renovation  which  started  in  Umbria  was 
being  propagated  to  the  very  ends  of  Europe.  The 
anonymous  chronicler  of  Monte  Sereno 3  in  fact  wrote 
about  1225,  and  tells  us,  not  without  regret,  of  the  brill- 
iant conquests  of  the  Franciscans. 

Burchard,4  Abbot  Prémontré  d'Ursberg  (died  in  1226), 
who  was  in  Rome  in  1211,  leaves  us  a  very  curious  criti- 
cism of  the  Order. 

The  Brothers  Minor  appeared  to  him  a  little  like  an  or- 
thodox branch  of  the  Poor  Men  of  Lyons.  He  even  de- 
sires that  the  pope,  while  approving  the  Franciscans, 

Rabbii,  a  work  which  occupies  cols.  353-590  of  t.  iii.  of  his  Opera 
omnia,  Milan,  1732-1737,  6  vols.,  f°.  We  find  our  fragment  in  col.  432. 

1  This  passage  will  be  found  above,  p.  241. 

2  Guillelmi  Tyrensis  arch.  Gontinuala  belli  meri  historia  in  Martène  : 
Amplissima  Collectio,  t.  v.  pp.  584-572.  The  piece  concerning  Francis 
is  cols.  689-690. 

3  Chronicon  Mon  tis  Serein  (at  present  Petersberg,  near  Halle),  edited  by 
Ehrenfeuchter  in  the  Mon.  Germ.  hist.  Script.,  t.  23,  pp.  130-226, 
229. 

4  Bnrchardiet  Cuonradi  Urspergensium  chronicon  éd.,  A  Otto  Abel  and 
L.  Weiland,  apnd  Mon.  Germ.  hist.,  t.  23,  pp.  333-383.  The  monastery 
of  Ursperg  was  half-way  between  Ulm  and  Augsburg.    Vide  p.  376. 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  SOURCES 


431 


should  do  so  with  a  view  to  satisfy,  in  the  measure  of 
the  possible,  the  aspirations  manifested  by  that  heresy 
and  that  of  the  Humiliati. 

It  is  impossible  to  attribute  any  value  whatever  to  the 
long  pages  given  to  St.  Francis  by  Matthew  Paris.1  His 
information  is  correct  wherever  the  activities  of  the 
friars  are  concerned,  and  he  could  examine  the  work, 
around  him.2  They  are  absolutely  fantastic  when  he 
comes  to  the  life  of  St.  Francis,  and  we  can  only  feel  sur- 
prised to  find  M.  Hase 3  adopting  the  English  monk's  ac- 
count of  the  stigmata. 

The  notice  which  he  gives  of  Francis  contains  as 
many  errors  as  sentences  ;  he  makes  him  born  of  a  family 
illustrious  by  its  nobility,  makes  him  study  theology  from 
his  infancy  (hoc  didicerat  in  Utteris  et  theologicis  disciplinis 
quibus  oh  œtate  tenera  incubuerat,  usque  ad  notitiam  perfec- 
tamj,  etc,4 

It  would  be  useless  to  enlarge  this  list  and  mention 
those  chroniclers  who  simply  noticed  the  foundation  of 
the  Order,  its  approbation,  and  the  death  of  St.  Francis,5 
or  those  which  spoke  of  him  at  length,  but  simply  by 
copying  a  Franciscan  legend.6 

1  MattJiœî  Parisimsis  monachie  Albanensis,  Historia  major,  edition 
Watts,  London,  1640.  The  Brothers  Minor  are  first  mentioned  in  the 
year  1207,  p.  222,  then  1227,  pp.  339-342. 

2  See  the  article,  Minores,  in  the  table  of  contents  of  the  Mon.  Germ, 
hist.  Script.,  t.  xxviii. 

3  Franz  ton  Assisi,  p.  168  ff . 

4  See  above,  p.  97,  his  story  of  the  andience  with  Innocent  DDL 

6  For  example,  Chronica  Albrici  trium  fontium  in  Pertz  :  Script.,  t.  23, 
ad  ann.  1207,  1226,  1228.  Vide  Fragment  of  the  chron.  of  Philippe 
Mousket  before  1245).  Recueil  des  historiens,  t.  xxii.,  p.  71,  lines 
30347-30360.  The  number  of  annalists  in  this  century  is  appalling, 
and  there  is  not  one  in  ten  who  has  omitted  to  note  the  foundation  of 
the  Minor  Brothers. 

6  For  example.  Vincent  de  Beauvais  (»J.  1264)  gives  in  his  Speculum  Ids- 
toriale,  lib.  29;  cap.  97-99,  lib.  30,  cap.  99-111,  nearly  every  story  given 


432 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


It  suffices  to  point  out  by  way  of  memory  the  long 
chapter  consecrated  to  St.  Francis  in  the  Golden  Legend. 
Giachimo  di  V oraggio  (►>  1298)  there  sums  up  with  accu- 
racy but  without  order  the  essential  features  of  the  first 
legends  and  in  particular  the  Second  Life  by  Celano.1 

As  for  the  inscription  of  Santa  Maria  del  Vescovado  at 
Assisi  it  is  too  unformed  to  be  anything  but  a  simple  ob- 
ject of  curiosity.2 

I  have  given  up  preparing  a  complete  bibliography  of 
works  concerning  St.  Francis,  that  task  having  been  very 
well  done  by  the  Abbé  Ulysse  Chevalier  in  his  Répertoire 
des  sources  historic  m  s  du  moyen  age,  Bio-Bibliographie, 
cols.  765-767  and  2588-2590,  Paris,  1  vol.,  4to,  1876- 
1888.    To  it  I  refer  my  readers. 

by  the  Bollandists  under  the  title  of  Secunda  legenda  in  their  Commen- 
tarium  praevium. 

1  Legenda  aurea,  Graesse,  Breslau,  1800,  pp.  662-674. 

2  A  good  reproduction  of  it  will  be  found  in  the  Miscellanea  frances- 
cana,  t.  ii.,  pp.  33-37,  accompanied  by  a  learned  dissertation  by  M. 
Faloci  Pulignani. 


APPENDIX 


CRITICAL  STUDY  OF  THE  STIGMATA  AXD  THE  INDULGENCE 
OF  AUGUST  2 

L  The  Stigmata 

À  dissertation  upon  the  possibility  of  miracles  would 
be  out  of  place  here  ;  a  historic  sketch  is  not  a  treatise  on 
philosophy  or  dogmatics. 

Still,  I  owe  the  reader  a  few  explanations,  to  enable 
him  with  thorough  understanding  to  judge  of  my  manner 
of  yiewing  the  subject. 

If  by  miracle  we  understand  either  the  suspension  or 
subyersion  of  the  laws  of  nature,  or  the  interyention  of 
the  first  cause  in  certain  particular  cases,  I  could  not 
concede  it.  In  this  negation  physical  and  logical  reasons 
are  secondary  ;  the  true  reason — let  no  one  be  surprised 
— is  entirely  religious  ;  the  miracle  is  immoral.  The 
equality  of  all  before  God  is  one  of  the  postulates  of  the 
religious  consciousness,  and  the  miracle,  that  good  pleas- 
ure of  God,  only  degrades  him  to  the  leyel  of  the  capri- 
cious tyrants  of  the  earth. 

The  existing  churches,  making,  as  nearly  all  of  them  do, 
this  notion  of  miracle  the  yery  essence  of  religion  and  the 
basis  of  all  positiye  faith,  inyoluntarily  render  themselves 
guilty  of  that  emasculation  of  manliness  and  morality  of 
which  they  so  passionately  complain.  If  God  intervenes 
thus  irregularly  in  the  affairs  of  men,  the  latter  can 


434 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FIJANCIS 


hardly  do  otherwise  than  seek  to  become  courtiers  who 
expect  all  things  of  the  sovereign's  favor. 

The  question  chauges  its  aspect,  if  we  call  miracle,  as 
Ave  most  generally  do,  all  that  goes  beyond  ordinary 
experience. 

Many  apologists  delight  in  showing  that  the  unheard 
of,  the  inexplicable,  are  met  with  all  through  life.  They 
are  right  and  I  agree  with  them,  on  condition  that  they 
do  not  at  the  close  of  their  explanation  replace  this  new 
notion  of  the  supernatural  by  the  former  one. 

It  is  thus  that  I  have  come  to  conclude  the  reality  of 
the  stigmata.  They  may  have  been  a  unique  fact  with- 
out being  more  miraculous  than  other  phenomena;  for 
example,  the  mathematical  powers  or  the  musical  ability 
of  an  infant  prodigy. 

There  are  in  tha  human  creature  almost  indefinite 
powers,  marvellous  energies;  in  the  great  majority  of 
men  these  lie  in  torpid  slumber,  but  awaking  to  life  in  a 
few,  they  make  of  them  prophets,  men  of  genius,  and 
saints  who  show  humanity  its  true  nature. 

We  have  caught  but  fleeting  glimpses  into  the  domain 
of  mental  pathology,  so  vast  is  it  and  unexplored;  the 
learned  men  of  the  future  will  perhaps  make,  in  the 
realms  of  psychology  and  physiology,  such  discoveries  as 
will  bring  about  a  complete  revolution  in  our  laws  and 
customs. 

It  remains  to  examine  the  stigmata  from  the  point  of 
view  of  history.  And  though,  in  this  field  there  is  no 
tack  of  difficulties,  small  and  great,  the  testimony  appears 
to  me  to  be  at  once  too  abundant  and  too  precise  not  to 
command  conviction. 

We  may  at  the  outset  set  aside  the  system  of  those 
who  hold  that  Brother  Elias  helped  on  their  appearance 
by  a  pious  fraud.  Such  a  claim  might  indeed  be  de- 
fended if  these  marks  had  been  gaping  wounds,  as  they 


APPENDIX 


435 


are  now  or  in  most  cases  have  been  represented  to  be  ; 
but  all  the  testimony  agrees  in  describing  them,  with  the 
exception  of  the  mark  on  the  side,  as  blackish,  fleshy 
excrescences,  like  the  heads  of  nails,  and  in  the  palms  of 
the  hands  like  the  points  of  nails  clinched  by  a  hammer. 
There  was  no  bloody  exudation  except  at  the  side. 

On  the  other  hand,  any  deception  on  the  part  of  Elias 
would  oblige  us  to  hold  that  his  accomplices  were  actually 
the  heads  of  the  party  opposed  to  him,  Leo,  Angelo,  and 
Rufino.  Such  want  of  wit  would  be  surprising  indeed 
in  a  man  so  circumspect. 

Finally  the  psychological  agreement  between  the  ex- 
ternal circumstances  and  the  event  is  so  close  that  an  in- 
vention of  this  character  would  be  as  inexplicable  as  the 
fact  itself.  That  which  indeed  almost  always  betrays 
invented  or  unnatural  incidents  is  that  they  do  not  fit 
into  the  framework  of  the  facts.  They  are  extraneous 
events,  purely  decorative  elements  whose  place  might  be 
changed  at  will. 

Nothing  of  the  sort  is  the  case  here  :  Thomas  of  Celano 
is  so  veracious  and  so  exact,  that  though  holding  the 
stigmata  to  be  miraculous,  he  gives  us  all  the  elements 
necessary  for  explaining  them  in  a  diametrically  opposite 
manner. 

1.  The  preponderating  place  of  the  passion  of  Jesus  in 
Francis's  conscience  ever  since  his  conversion  (1  Cel., 
115;  2  Cel.,  1,  6  ;  3,  29  ;  49;  52). 

2.  His  sojourn  in  the  Yerna  coincides  with  a  great  in- 
crease of  mystical  fervor. 

3.  He  there  observes  a  Lent  in  honor  of  the  archangel 
St.  Michael. 

4.  The  festival  of  the  exaltation  of  the  cross  comes  on, 
and  in  the  vision  of  the  crucified  seraph  is  blended  the 
two  ideas  which  have  taken  possession  of  him,  the  angels 
and  the  crucifix  (1  Cel.,  91-96,  112-115). 


436 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


This  perfect  eongruifcy  between  the  circumstances  and 
the  prodigy  itself  forms  a  moral  proof  whose  value  can- 
not be  exaggerated. 

It  is  time  to  pass  the  principal  witnesses  in  review. 

1.  Brother  Elias,  1226.  On  the  very  day  after  the 
death  of  Francis,  Brother  Elias,  in  his  capacity  of  vicar, 
sent  letters  to  the  entire  Order  announcing  the  event 
and  prescribing  prayers.1 

After  having  expressed  his  sorrow  and  imparted  to  the 
Brothers  the  blessing  with  which  the  dying  Francis  had 
charged  him  for  them,  he  adds  :  "I  announce  to  you  a 
great  joy  and  a  new  miracle.  Never  has  the  world  seen 
such  a  sign,  except  on  the  Hon  of  God  who  is  the  Christ 
God.  For  a  long  time  before  his  death  our  Brother  and 
Father  appeared  as  crucified,  having  in  his  body  five 
wounds  which  are  truly  the  stigmata  of  Christ,  for  his 
hands  and  his  feet  bore  marks  as  of  nails  without  and 
within,  forming  a  sort  of  scars  ;  while  at  the  side  he  was 
as  if  pierced  with  a  lance,  and  often  a  little  blood  oozed 
from  it." 

2.  Brother  Leo.  We  find  that  it  is  the  very  adversary  of 
Elias  who  is  the  natural  witness,  not  only  of  the  stig- 

1  The  text  was  published  in  1620  by  Spœlberch  (in  his  Speculum  vitœ 
B.  Francisci,  Antwerp,  2  vols.,  12mo,  ii.,  pp.  103-106),  after  the  copy 
addressed  to  Brother  Gregory,  minister  in  France,  and  then  preserved 
in  the  convent  of  the  Recollects  in  Valenciennes.  It  was  reproduced 
by  Wadding  (Ann.  1226,  no.  44)  and  the  Bollandists  (pp.  668  and  669). 

So  late  an  appearance  of  a  capital  document  might  have  left  room  for 
doubts  ;  there  is  no  longer  reason  for  any,  since  the  publication  of  the 
chronicle  of  Giordano  di  Giano,  who  relates  the  sending  of  this  letter 
(Giord.,  50).  The  Abbé  Amoni  has  also  published  this  text  (at  the  close 
of  his  Legenda  trium  Sociorum,  Rome,  1880,  pp.  105-109),  but  accord- 
ing to  his  deplorable  habit,  he  neglects  to  tell  whence  he  has  drawn  it. 
This  is  the  more  to  be  regretted  since  he  gives  a  variant  of  the  first 
order  :  Nam  cliu  ante  mortem  instead  of  Non  diu,  as  Spœlberch's  text 
has  it.  The  reading  Nam  din  appears  preferable  from  a  philological  point 
of  view. 


APPENDIX 


437 


mata,  but  of  the  circumstances  of  their  imprinting.  This 
fact  adds  a  peculiar  value  to  his  account. 

"We  learned  above  (Critical  Study,  p.  377)  the  untoward 
fate  of  a  part  of  the  Legend  of  Brothers  Leo,  Angelo,  and 
Eufino.  The  chapters  with  which  it  now  closes  (68-73) 
and  in  which  the  narrative  of  the  miracle  occurs,  were 
not  originally  a  part  of  it.  They  are  a  summary  added 
at  a  later  time  to  complete  this  document.  This  appendix, 
therefore,  has  no  historic  value,  and  we  neither  depend  on 
it  with  the  ecclesiastical  authors  to  affirm  the  miracle,  nor 
with  M.  Hase  to  call  it  in  question. 

Happily  the  testimony  of  Brother  Leo  has  come  down 
to  us  in  spite  of  that.  We  are  not  left  even  to  seek  for 
it  in  the  Speculum,  the  Fioretti,  the  Conformities,  where 
fragments  of  his  work  are  to  be  found  ;  we  find  it  in  sev- 
eral other  documents  of  incontestable  authority. 

The  authenticity  of  the  autograph  of  St.  Francis  pre- 
served at  Assisi  appears  to  be  thoroughly  established 
(see  Critical  Study,  p.  357)  ;  it  contains  the  following  note 
by  Brother  Leo's  hand  :  "  The  Blessed  Francis  two  years 
before  his  death  kept  on  the  Yerna  in  honor  of  the  B.  V. 
Mary  mother  of  God,  and  St.  Michael  Archangel,  a  Lent 
from  the  festival  of  the  Assumption  of  the  B.  V.  M.  to 
the  festival  of  St.  Michael  in  September,  and  the  hand  of 
God  was  upon  him  by  the  vision  and  the  address  of  the 
seraph  and  the  impression  of  the  stigmata  upon  his 
body.    He  made  the  laudes  that  are  on  the  other  side, 

...  etc." 

Again,  Eccleston  (13)  shows  us  Brother  Leo  complain- 
ing to  Brother  Peter  of  Tewkesbury,  minister  in  Eng- 
land, that  the  legend  is  too  brief  concerning  the  events 
on  the  Yerna,  and  relating  to  him  the  greater  number  of 
the  incidents  which  form  the  nucleus  of  the  Fioretti  on 
the  stigmata.  These  memorials  are  all  the  more  certain 
that  they  were  immediately  committed  to  writing  by 


438 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Peter  of  Tewkesbury's  companion,  Brother  Garin  von 
Sedenfeld. 

Finally  Salembeni,  in  his  chronicle  (ad  ann.  1224)  in 
speaking  of  Ezzelino  da  Romano  is  led  to  oppose  him  to 
Francis.  He  suddenly  remembers  the  stigmata  and 
says,  "  Never  man  on  earth,  but  he,  has  had  the  five 
wounds  of  Christ.  His  companion,  Brother  Leo,  who 
was  present  when  they  washed  the  body  before  the 
burial,  told  me  that  he  looked  precisely  like  a  crucified 
man  taken  down  from  the  cross." 

3.  Thomas  of  Celano,  before  1230.  He  describes 
them  more  at  length  than  Brother  Elias  (1  Cel.,  94,  95, 
112). 

The  details  are  too  precise  not  to  suggest  a  lesson 
learned  by  heart.  The  author  nowhere  assumes  to  be 
an  eye-witness,  yet  he  has  the  tone  of  a  legal  deposition. 

These  objections  are  not  without  weight,  but  the  very 
novelty  of  the  miracle  might  have  induced  the  Francis- 
cans to  fix  it  in  a  sort  of  canonical  and  so  to  say,  stereo- 
typed narrative. 

4.  The  portrait  of  Francis,  by  Berlinghieri,  dated 
1236,1  preserved  at  Pescia  (province  of  Lucca)  shows  the 
stigmata  as  they  are  described  in  the  preceding  docu- 
ments. 

5.  Gregory  IX.  in  1237.  Bull  of  March  31  ;  Confessor 
Domini  (Potthast,  10307.  Cf.  10315).  A  movement  of 
opinion  against  the  stigmata  had  been  produced  in  cer- 
tain countries.  The  pope  asks  all  the  faithful  to  believe 
in  them.  Two  other  bulls  of  the  same  day,  one  ad- 
dressed to  the  Bishop  of  Olmûtz,  the  other  to  the  Do- 
minicans, energetically  condemns  them  for  calling  the 
stigmata  in  question  (Potthast,  10308  and  10309). 

6.  Alexander  IY.,  in  his  bull  Benigna  operatio  of  Oc- 
tober  29,   1255  (Potthast,  16077),  states  that  having 

1  Engraved  in  Saint  François  d'Assise,  Paris,  4to,  1885,  p.  277. 


APPENDIX 


439 


formerly  been  the  domestic  prelate  of  Cardinal  Ugolini, 
he  knew  St.  Francis  familiarly,  and  supports  his  descrip- 
tion of  the  stigmata  by  these  relations. 

To  this  pontiff  are  due  several  bulls  declaring  excom- 
municate all  those  who  deny  them.  These  contribute 
nothing  new  to  the  question. 

7.  Bonaventura  (1260)  repeats  in  his  legend  Thomas  of 
Celano's  description  (Bon.,  193;  cf.  1  Cel.  94  and  95),  not 
without  adding  some  new  factors  (Bon.,  194-200  and  215- 
218),  often  so  coarse  and  clumsy  that  they  inevitably 
awaken  doubt  (see  for  example,  201). 

8.  Matthew  Paris  1259).  His  discordant  witness 
barely  deserves  being  cited  by  way  of  memoir  (see  Crit- 
ical Study,  p.  431).  To  be  able  to  forgive  the  fanciful 
character  of  his  long  disquisitions  on  St.  Francis,  we  are 
forced  to  recall  to  mind  that  he  owed  his  information  to 
the  verbal  account  of  some  pilgrim.  He  makes  the  stig- 
mata appear  a  fortnight  before  the  Saint's  death,  shows 
them  continually  emitting  blood,  the  wound  on  the  side 
so  wide  open  that  the  heart  could  be  seen.  The  people 
gather  in  crowds  to  see  the  sight,  the  cardinals  come  also, 
and  all  together  listen  to  Francis's  strange  declarations. 
(Ristoria  major,  Watts's  edition  London,  1  vol.  fol.,  1640, 
pp.  339-342.) 

This  list  might  be  greatly  lengthened  by  the  addition 
of  a  passage  from  Luke  bishop  of  Tuy  (Lucas  Tudensis) 
written  in  1231  ; 1  based  especially  on  the  Life  by  Thomas 
of  Celano,  and  oral  witnesses. 

The  statement  of  Brother  Boniface,  an  eye-witness,  at 
the  chapter  of  Genoa  (1254).  (Eccl.  13.) 

Finally  and  especially,  we  should  study  the  strophes 
relating  to  the  stigmata  in  the  proses,  hymns,  and  sequen- 
ces composed  in  1228  by  the  pope  and  several  cardinals 

1  BibliotJieca  Patvum.  Lyons.  1677,  xxv. ,  adv.  Albigenses,  lib.  ii.,  cap. 
11.,  cf.  iii.,  14  and  15.    Reproduced  in  the  A.  SS.,  p.  652. 


440 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


for  the  Office  of  St.  Francis  ;  but  such  a  work,  to  be  done 
with  accuracy,  would  carry  us  very  far,  and  the  authori- 
ties already  cited  doubtless  suffice  without  bringing  in 
others.1 

The  objections  which  have  been  opposed  to  these  wit- 
nesses may  be  reduced,  I  think,  to  the  following  : 2 

a.  Francis's  funeral  took  place  with  surprising  precipi- 
tation. Dead  on  Saturday  evening,  he  was  buried  Sun- 
day morning. 

b.  His  body  was  enclosed  in  a  coffin,  which  is  contrary 
to  Italian  habits. 

c.  At  the  time  of  the  removal,  the  body,  wrested  from 
the  multitude,  is  so  carefully  hidden  in  the  basilica  that 
for  centuries  its  precise  place  has  been  unknown. 

d.  The  bull  of  canonization  makes  no  mention  of  the 
stigmata. 

e.  They  were  not  admitted  without  a  contest,  and 
among  those  who  denied  them  were  some  bishops. 

None  of  these  arguments  appears  to  me  decisive. 

a.  In  the  Middle  Ages  funerals  almost  always  took 
place  immediately  after  death  (Innocent  III.  dying  at 
Perugia  July  16, 1216,  is  interred  the  17th  ;  Honorius  III. 
dies  March  18,  1227,  and  is  interred  the  next  day). 

b.  It  is  more  difficult  than  many  suppose  to  know  what 
were  the  habits  concerning  funerals  in  Umbria  in  the 
thirteenth  century.  However  that  may  be,  it  was  cer- 
tainly necessary  to  put  Francis's  body  into  a  coffin.  He 
being  already  canonized  by  popular  sentiment,  his  corpse 
was  from  that  moment  a  relic  for  which  a  reliquary  was 

1  The  curious  may  consult  the  following  sources  :  Salimbeni,  ann. 
1250.  —  Conform.,  171b  2,  235a  2  ;  Bon.,  200  ;  Wadding,  ann.  1228,  no. 
78  ;  A.  SS. ,  p.  800.  Manuscript  340  of  the  Sacro  Convento  contains  (fo. 
55b-56b)  four  of  these  hymns.    Cf.  Archiv.  i. ,  p.  485. 

s  See  in  particular  Hase  :  Franz  v.  Assist.  Leipsic,  1  vol.,  8vo.,  1856. 
The  learned  professor  devotes  no  less  than  sixty  closely  printed  pages  to 
the  study  of  the  stigmata,  142-202. 


APPENDIX 


441 


necessary  ;  nay  more,  a  strong  box  such  as  the  secondary 
scenes  in  Beiiinghieri's  picture  shows  it  to  have  been. 
"Without  such  a  precaution  the  sacred  body  would  have 
been  reduced  to  fragments  in  a  few  moments.  Call  to 
mind  the  wild  enthusiasm  that  led  the  devotees  to  cut  off 
the  ears  and  even  the  breasts  of  St.  Elizabeth  of  Hungary. 
\_Qucedc.m  cures  illius  tru7waba/n£}  etio.m  summitotem  mci- 
millarum  ejus  quidam praecidebant  et  pro  reliquiis  sibi  ser- 
vabant. — Liber  de  dietis  iv.  wnxdllarum,  Mencken,  vol  ii., 
p.  2032.] 

e.  The  ceremony  of  translation  brought  an  innumerable 
multitude  to  Assisi.  If  Brother  Elias  concealed  the 
body,1  he  may  have  been  led  to  do  so  by  the  fear  of  some 
organized  surprise  of  the  Perugians  to  gain  possession 
of  the  precious  relic.  With  the  customs  of  those  days, 
such  a  theft  would  have  been  in  nowise  extraordinary. 
These  very  Perugians  a  few  years  later  stole  away  from 
Bastia,  a  village  dependent  on  Assisi,  the  body  of  Conrad 
of  Offida,  which  was  performing  innumerable  miracles 
there.  (Conform.,  60b,  1  ;  cf.  Giord.,  50.)  Similar  affrays 
took  place  at  Padua  over  the  relics  of  St.  Anthony. 
(Hilaire,  Saint  Antoine  de  Padoue,  sa  légende  primitive, 
Montreuil-sur-Mer,  1  vol.,  8vo,  1890,  pp.  30-40.) 

d.  The  bull  of  canonization,  with  the  greater  number 
of  such  documents,  for  that  matter,  makes  no  historic 
claim.  In  its  wordy  rhetoric  we  shall  sooner  learn  the 
history  of  the  Philistines,  of  Samson,  or  even  of  Jacob, 
than  of  St.  Francis.  Canouization  here  is  only  a  pretext 
which  the  old  pontiff  seizes  for  recurring  to  his  favorite 
figures. 

This  silence  signifies  nothing  after  the  very  explicit 

1  The  more  I  think  about  it,  the  more  incapable  I  become  of  attribut- 
ing any  sort  of  Tveight  to  this  argument  from  the  disappearance  of  the 
body  ;  for  in  fact,  if  there  had  been  any  pious  fraud  on  Elias's  part,  he 
•would  on  the  contrary  have  displayed  the  corpse. 


442 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


testimony  of  other  bulls  by  the  same  pontiff  in  1227,  and 
after  the  part  given  to  the  stigmata  in  the  liturgical  songs 
which  in  1228  he  composed  for  the  office  of  St.  Francis. 

e.  These  attacks  by  certain  bishops  are  in  nowise  sur- 
prising ;  they  are  episodes  in  the  struggle  of  the  secular 
clergy  against  the  mendicant  orders. 

At  the  time  when  these  negations  were  brought  for- 
ward (1237)  the  narrative  of  Thomas  of  Celano  was  offi- 
cial and  everywhere  known  ;  nothing  therefore  would 
have  been  easier,  half  a  score  of  years  after  the  events, 
than  to  bring  witnesses  to  expose  the  fraud  if  there  had 
been  any;  but  the  Bishop  of  Olmutz  and  the  others 
base  their  objections  always  and  only  upon  dogmatic 
grounds. 

As  to  the  attacks  of  the  Dominicans,  it  is  needless  to 
recall  the  rivalry  between  the  two  Orders  ; 1  is  it  not  then 
singular  to  find  these  protestations  coming  from  Silesia 
(!)  and  never  from  Central  Italy,  where,  among  other  eye- 
witnesses, Brother  Leo  was  yet  living  (*b  1271)  ? 

Thus  the  witnesses  appear  to  me  to  maintain  their  in- 
tegrity. We  might  have  preferred  them  more  simple  and 
shorter,  we  could  wish  that  they  had  reached  us  without 
details  which  awake  all  sorts  of  suspicions,2  but  it  is  very 
seldom  that  a  witness  does  not  try  to  prove  his  affirma- 

1  See,  for  example,  2  Cel.,  3,  86,  as  well  as  the  encyclical  of  Giovanni 
di  Parma  and  Umberto  di  Romano,  in  1225. 

2  The  following  among  many  others:  Francis  had  particularly  high 
breeches  made  for  him,  to  hide  the  wound  in  the  side  (Bon.,  201).  At 
the  moment  of  the  apparition,  which  took  place  during  the  night,  so 
great  a  light  flooded  the  whole  country,  that  merchants  lodging  in  the 
inns  of  Casentino  saddled  their  beasts  and  set  out  on  their  way.  Fior. 
Hi.  consid. 

Hase,  in  his  study,  is  continually  under  the  weight  of  the  bad  im- 
pression made  upon  him  by  Bonaventura's  deplorable  arguments  ;  he 
sees  the  other  witness  only  through  him.  I  think  that  if  he  had  read 
simply  Thomas  of  Celano's  first  Life,  he  would  have  arrived  at  very  dif- 
ferent conclusions. 


APPENDIX 


443 


tions  and  to  prop  them  up  by  arguments  which,  though 
detestable,  are  appropriate  to  the  vulgar  audience  to 
which  he  is  speaking. 

II.  The  Pardon  of  August  2d,  called  Indulgence  of  Portt- 
uncula 1 

This  question  might  be  set  aside  ;  on  the  whole  it  has 
no  direct  connection  with  the  history  of  St.  Francis. 

1  The  most  important  document  is  manuscript  344  of  the  archives  of 
Sacro  Convento  at  Assisi.  Liber  indulgentim  S.  Mariœ  de  Angelis  sive 
de  Portiuncula  in  quo  libro  ego  fr.  Francisons  BartJioli  de  Assisio  posui 
quidquid  potui  sollicite  invenire  in  legendis  antiguis  et  novis  b.  Francisez 
et  in  aliis  dictis  sociorum  ejus  de  loco  eodem  et  commendatione  ipsius  loci  et 
quidquid  xeritatis  et  certitudinis  potui  invenire  de  sacra  indulgentia pre- 
fati  loci,  quomodo  scilicet  fuit  impetrata  et  data  b.  Francisco  de  miraculis 
ipsius  indidgentiœ  quo?  ipsam  declarant  certain  et  veram.  Bartholi  lived 
in  the  first  half  of  the  fourteenth  century. 

His  work  is  still  unpublished,  but  Father  Leo  Patrem  M.  O.  is  pre- 
paring it  for  publication.  The  name  of  this  learned  monk  gives  every 
guaranty  for  the  accuracy  of  this  difficult  work  ;  meanwhile  a  de- 
tailed description  and  long  extracts  may  be  found  in  the  Miscellanea 
(ii.,  1887).  La  storia  del  perdono  di  Francesco  de  Bartholi,  by  Don  Mi- 
chèle Faloci  Pulignani,  pp.  149-153  (cf.  Archiv.,  i. ,  p.  486).  See  also  in 
tha  Miscellanea  (i.,  1886,  p.  15)  a  bibliographical  note  containing  a  de- 
tailed list  of  fifty-eight  works  (cf.  ibid.,  pp.  48,  145). 

The  legend  itself  is  found  in  the  Speculum,  69b-83a,  and  in  the  Con- 
formities, 151b-157a.  In  these  two  collections  it  is  still  found  labori- 
ously worked  in  and  is  not  an  integral  part  of  the  rest  of  the  work.  In 
the  latter,  Bartolemmeo  di  Pisa  has  carried  accuracy  so  far  as  to  copy 
from  end  to  end  all  the  documents  that  he  had  before  him,  and  as  they 
belong  to  different  periods  he  thus  gives  us  several  phases  of  the  devel- 
opment of  the  tradition.  The  most  complete  work  is  that  of  the  Eecol- 
lect  Father  Grouwel  :  Historia  critica  S.  Lndulgentiœ  B.  Mariœ  Angel- 
orum  vidgo  de  Portiuncula  .  .  .  contra  Libellos  aliquos  anonymo  ac 
famosos  nuper  editos,  Antwerp,  1726,  1  vol.,  8vo.  pp.  510. 

The  Bollandist  Suvsken  also  makes  a  long  study  of  it  (A.  SS.,  pp.  879- 
910),  as  also  the  Recollect  Father  Candide  Chalippe,  Vie  de  saint  Fran- 
cois d'Assise,  3  vols.,  8vo,~ Paris,  1874  (the  first  edition  is  of  1720),  vol. 
iii.,  pp.  190-327. 

In  each  of  these  works  we  find  what  has  been  said  in  all  the  others. 


444 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Yet  it  occupies  too  large  a  place  in  modern  biographies 
not  to  require  a  few  words  :  it  is  related  that  Francis  was 
in  prayer  one  night  at  Portiuncula  when  Jesus  and  the 
Virgin  appeared  to  him  with  a  retinue  of  angels.  He 
made  bold  to  ask  an  unheard-of  privilege,  that  of  plenary 
indulgence  of  all  sins  for  all  those  who,  having  confessed 
and  being  contrite,  should  visit  this  chapel.  Jesus 
granted  this  at  his  mother's  request,  on  the  sole  condi- 
tion that  his  vicar  the  pope  would  ratify  it. 

The  next  day  Francis  set  out  for  Perugia,  accompanied 
by  Masseo,  and  obtained  from  Honorius  the  desired  in- 
dulgence, but  only  for  the  day  of  August  2d. 

Such,  in  a  few  lines,  is  the  summary  of  this  legend, 
which  is  surrounded  with  a  crowd  of  marvellous  inci- 
dents. 

The  question  of  the  nature  and  value  of  indulgences  is 
not  here  concerned.  The  only  one  which  is  here  put  is 
this  :  Did  Francis  ask  this  indulgence  and  did  Honorius 
III.  grant  it  ? 

Merely  to  reduce  it  to  these  simple  proportions  is  to 
be  brought  to  answer  it  with  a  categorical  No. 

It  would  be  tedious  to  refer  even  briefly  to  the  difficul- 
ties, contradictions,  impossibilities  of  this  story,  many  a 
time  pointed  out  by  orthodox  writers.    In  spite  of  all 

The  numerous  writings  against  the  Indulgence  are  either  a  collection  of 
vulgarities  or  dogmatic  treatises  ;  I  refrain  from  burdenirjg  these  pages 
with  them.    The  principal  ones  are  indicated  by  G-rouwel  and  Chalippe. 

Among  contemporaries  Father  Barnabas  of  Alsace  :  Portiuricula  oder 
Geschichte  Unserer  Helen  Frau  von  den  E-ngeln  (Rixheim,  1  vol.,  8vo, 
1884),  represents  the  tradition  of  the  Order,  and  the  Abbé  Le  Monnier 
{Histoire  de  Saint  François,  2  vols. ,  8vo,  Paris,  1889),  moderate  Catholic 
opinion  in  non-Franciscan  circles. 

The  best  summary  is  that  of  Father  Panfilo  da  Magliano  in  his  Storia 
compendiosa.  It  has  been  completed  and  amended  in  the  German 
translation  :  Geschichte  des  h.  Francisais  unci  der  Franziskaner  ùbersetzt 
und  bearbeitet  von  Fr.  Quintianus  Miiller,  vol.  i.,  Munich,  1883,  pp. 
233-259. 


APPENDIX 


445 


they  have  come  to  the  affirmative  conclusion  :  Roma 
locuta  est. 

Those  whom  this  subject  may  interest  will  find  in  the 
note  above  detailed  bibliographical  indications  of  the 
principal  elements  of  this  now  quieted  discussion.  I 
shall  confine  myself  to  pointing  out  the  impossibilities 
with  which  tradition  comes  into  collision  ;  they  are  both 
psychological  and  historical.  The  Bollandists  long  since 
pointed  out  the  silence  of  Francis's  early  biographers 
upon  this  question.  Now  that  the  published  documents 
are  much  more  numerous,  this  silence  is  still  more  over- 
whelming. Neither  the  First  nor  the  Second  Life  by 
Thomas  of  Celano,  nor  the  anonymous  author  of  the 
second  life  given  in  the  Acta  Sanctorum,  nor  even  the 
anonymous  writer  of  Perugia,  nor  the  Three  Companions, 
nor  Bonaventura  say  a  single  word  on  the  subject.  No 
more  do  very  much  later  works  mention  it,  which  sin  only 
by  excessive  critical  scruples  :  Bernard  of  Besse,  Giordi- 
ano  di  Giano,  Thomas  Eccleston,  the  Chronicle  of  the 
Tribulations,  the  Fioretti,  and  even  the  Golden  Legend. 

This  conspiracy  of  silence  of  all  the  writers  of  the  thir- 
teenth century  would  be  the  greatest  miracle  of  history  if 
it  were  not  absurd. 

By  way  of  explanation,  it  has  been  said  that  these 
writers  refrained  from  speaking  of  this  indulgence  for 
fear  of  injming  that  of  the  Crusade  ;  but  in  that  case, 
why  did  the  pope  command  seven  bishops  to  go  to  Por- 
tiuncula  to  proclaim  it  in  his  name  ? 

The  legend  takes  upon  itself  to  explain  that  Francis 
refused  a  bull  or  any  written  attestation  of  this  privilege  ; 
but.  admitting  this,  it  would  still  be  necessary  to  explain 
why  no  hint  of  this  matter  has  been  preserved  in  the 
papers  of  Honorius  ILL  And  how  is  it  that  the  bulls 
sent  to  the  seven  bishops  have  left  not  the  slightest  trace 
upon  this  pontiff  s  register  ? 


446 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Again,  how  does  it  happen,  if  seven  bishops  officially 
promulgated  this  indulgence  in  1217,  that  St.  Francis, 
after  having  related  to  Brother  Leo  his  interview  with 
the  pope,  said  to  him  :  "  Teneas  secretum  hoc  usque  circa 
mortem  tuctm;  quia  non  habet  locum  adhuc.  Quia  hœc 
indulgent ia  occidtabitur  ad  tempus  ;  sed  Dominus  trahet 
earn  extra  et  manifestahitur"  Conform.,  153b,  2.  Such 
an  avowal  is  not  wanting  in  simplicity.  It  abundantly 
proves  that  before  the  death  of  Brother  Leo  (1271)  no 
one  had  spoken  of  this  famous  pardon. 

After  this  it  is  needless  to  insist  upon  secondary  dif- 
ficulties ;  how  is  it  that  the  chapters-general  were  not 
fixed  for  August  2d,  to  allow  the  Brothers  to  secure  the 
indulgence  ? 

How  explain  that  Francis,  after  having  received  in  1216 
a  privilege  unique  in  the  annals  of  the  Church,  should  be 
a  stranger  to  the  pope  in  1219  ! 

There  is,  however,  one  more  proof  whose  value  exceeds 
all  the  others — Francis's  "Will  : 

"  I  forbid  absolutely  all  the  Brothers  by  their  obe- 
dience, in  whatever  place  they  may  be,  to  ask  any  bull 
of  the  court  of  Piome,  whether  directly  or  indirectly,  nor 
under  pretext  of  church  or  convent,  nor  under  pretext  of 
preaching,  nor  even  for  their  personal  protection." 

Before  closing  it  remains  for  us  to  glance  at  the  growth 
of  this  legend. 

It  was  definitively  constituted  about  1330-1340,  but  it 
was  in  the  air  long  before.  With  the  patience  of  four 
Benedictines  (of  the  best  days)  we  should  doubtless  be 
able  to  find  our  way  in  the  medley  of  documents,  more  or 
less  corrupted,  from  which  it  comes  to  us,  and  little  by 
little  we  might  find  the  starting-point  of  this  dream  in  a 
friar  who  sees  blinded  humanity  kneeling  around  Por- 
tiimcula  to  recover  sight.1 

1  2  Cel.,  1,  13  ;  3  Soc.,  56  ;  Bon.,  24. 


APPENDIX 


447 


It  is  not  difficult  to  see  in  general  what  led  to  the 
materialization  of  this  graceful  fancy  :  people  remembered 
Francis's  attachment  to  the  chapel  where  he  had  heard 
the  decisive  words  of  the  gospel,  and  where  St.  Clara  in 
her  turn  had  entered  upon  a  new  life. 

AVhen  the  great  Basilica  of  Assisi  was  built,  drawing  to 
itself  pilgrims  and  privileges,  an  opposition  of  principles 
and  of  inspiration  came  to  be  added  to  the  petty  rivalry 
between  it  and  Portiuncula. 

The  zealots  of  poverty  said  aloud  that  though  the 
Saint's  body  rested  in  the  basilica  his  heart  was  at  Porti- 
uncula.1 By  dint  of  repeating  and  exaggerating  what 
Francis  had  said  about  the  little  sanctuary,  they  came  to 
give  a  precise  and  so  to  say  doctrinal  sense  to  utterances 
purely  mystical. 

The  violences  and  persecutions  of  the  party  of  the 
Large  Observance  under  the  generalship  of  Crescentius 2 
(1244XL247)  aroused  a  vast  increase  of  fervor  among  their 
adversaries.  To  the  bull  of  Innocent  TV.  declaring  the 
basilica  thenceforth  Caput  et  Mater  of  the  Order 3  the 
Zealots  replied  by  the  narratives  of  Celano's  Second  Life 
and  the  legends  of  that  period.4  They  went  so  far  as  to 
quote  a  promise  of  Francis  to  make  it  in  perpetuity  the 
Mater  et  Caput  of  his  institute.3 

In  this  way  the  two  parties  came  to  group  themselves 
around  these  two  buildings.  Even  to-day  it  is  the  same. 
The  Franciscans  of  the  Strict  Observance  occupy  Porti- 
uncula, while  the  Basilica  of  Assisi  is  in  the  hands  of  the 

1  Conform.,  239b,  2. 

2  See  in  particular  Archiv.,  ii.,  p.  259,  and  the  bull  of  February  7, 
1246.    Potthast,  12007  ;  Glassberger,  arm.  1244  {An.fr.  t.  ii.,  p.  69). 

3  Is  qui  ecdesiam,  Mardi  6,  1245,  Potthast,  11576. 

42  Cel.,  1,  12  (cf.  Conform.,  218a,  1)  ;  3  Soc,  56;  Spec.,  32b  ff.  ;  49b 
ff.  ;  Conform.,  144a,  2. 

5  Conform.,  169a  ;  2,  21Tb.  1  ff.  Cf.  Fior.,  Amoni's  ed.  (Appendix  to 
the  Codex  of  the  Bib.  Angelica),  p.  378. 


448 


LIFE  OF  ST.  FRANCIS 


Conventuals  (Large  Observance),  who  have  adopted  all 
the  interpretations  and  mitigations  of  the  Rules  ;  they 
are  worthy  folk,  who  live  upon  their  dividends.  By  a 
phenomenon,  unique,  I  think,  in  the  annals  of  the 
Church,  they  have  pushed  the  freedom  of  their  infidel- 
ity to  the  point  of  casting  off  the  habit,  the  popular 
brown  cassock.  Dressed  all  in  black,  shod  and  hatted, 
nothing  distinguishes  them  from  the  secular  clergy  ex- 
cept a  modest  little  cord. 

Poor  Francis  !  That  he  may  have  the  joy  of  feeling 
his  tomb  brushed  by  a  coarse  gown,  some  daring  friar 
must  overcome  his  very  natural  repugnances,  and  come 
to  kneel  there.  The  indulgence  of  August  2d  is  then  the 
reply  of  the  Zealots  to  the  persecutions  of  their  brothers. 

An  attentive  study  will  perhaps  show  it  emerging  little 
by  little  under  the  generalship  of  Eaimondo  Gaufridi 
(1289-1295)  ;  Conrad  cli  Offida  (*  1306)  seems  to  have  had 
some  effect  upon  it,  but  only  with  the  next  generation  do 
we  find  the  legend  completed  and  avowed  in  open  day. 

Begun  in  a  misapprehension  it  ends  by  imposing  itself 
upon  the  Church,  which  to-day  guarantees  it  with  its  in- 
fallible authority,  and  yet  in  its  origin  it  was  a  veritable 
cry  of  revolt  against  the  decisions  of  Rome. 


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